Marie Stopes Kenya is currently partnering with several public health facilities in the provision of quality family planning and sexual reproductive health (SRH) services to both women and men in various counties.
In the partnership—women, men and young girls—are now able to access accurate information and safe, effective and acceptable contraception method of their choice such as tubal ligation, vasectomy as well as post abortion care (PAC) services to those in dire need of emergency care.
According to experts, PAC is a package of lifesaving interventions that combines maternal healthcare, including emergency treatment for complications of induced or spontaneous abortion, with voluntary contraception counseling and service delivery.
At the same time, the ongoing partnership also involves experts from Marie Stopes Kenya providing mentorship and on-job-training to healthcare workers employed in the public health facilities.
Speaking at Mathare North level four hospital in Nairobi recently, Chief nursing officer Ms Beth Wachira said before the institution entered the partnership with Marie Stopes, women and young girls who previously sought PAC services were all referred to other hospitals as staff lacked the requisite capacity to handle them.
“Apart from mentoring and offering on-job-training to our staffers, Marie Stopes Kenya is also providing adequate equipment such as manual vacuum aspiration kits which are vital during the provision of PAC services.”
“They also provide us with documentation and other tools and this partnership has now enabled our facility to become a ‘youth-friendly’ facility as all healthworkers have been sensitised, “ Ms Wachira added.
The chief nursing officer says a doctor, three clinical officers and two nurses deployed at the facility are among those who have been provided with mentorship and on-the-job training by the Marie Stopes team.
At the same time, the facility has now established a youth-friendly desk where adolescents seeking post abortion care and other family planning services are “properly” handled.
“A majority of adolescents who seek post abortion care in our facility usually suffer from heavy bleeding after undergoing illegal abortion procedures by quacks which endangers their lives as the foetus is dead resulting in incomplete abortion.”
“These are some of the emergency care services that our staffers are now able to competently handle due to the ongoing partnership,” Ms Wachira added.
A lawyer and reproductive health specialist, Mary Njeri says nearly 2,600 women lose their lives annually due to illegal abortion procedures.
“A majority are unable to access abortion services in private clinics due to prohibitive costs.”
“Previously, they also faced humiliation and berating by medical practitioners especially in public health facilities, “Ms Njeri added.
However, this aspect is now changing following the ongoing partnership between Marie Stopes Kenya and several public health facilities in the country.
Data from the District Health Information (2019) and National Council on Population and Development (2019) shows that every day 948 girls get pregnant in Kenya with 13,000 girls dropping out of school due to pregnancy annually.
At the same time, Ministry of Health statistics show that at least 14 per cent or seven out of every 50 births in Kenya are composed of teen mothers aged 15 to 19 years with 63 per cent of pregnancies in this age group unintended, with abortions claiming 35 per cent of them.
According to NCPD Director General, Dr Mohammed Sheikh, an estimated 59.3 per cent of girls who are sexually active are not using any form of contraceptives, increasing their chances of getting pregnant or even contracting sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV/Aids.
According to a World Health Organisation report, by preventing unintended pregnancies, contraception reduces the need for abortion, meaning women and girls are less at risk of unsafe abortion, which again can be life saving.
“By preventing the negative health consequences associated with unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortion and sexually transmitted infections (including HIV), contraception can help alleviate additional pressure on already-stretched health systems, “ WHO adds.
The National Syndemic Diseases Control Council chief executive officer, Dr Ruth Laibon-Masha says: “Every year, we get around 22,000 new HIV/Aids infections in people aged 35 and below.”
“Some 61 per cent of these occur young people aged 15 to 24 years, and the majority of sexual and gender-based violence cases among children aged between 10 to 17 year olds, which is a big problem,”.
Earlier, Ms Wachira said some of the challenges the institution was facing was the transfer of healthworkers who have undergone on-job-training and mentorship by MSK to other health facilities.
“The institution is also unable to provide PAC to those requiring the services at night as it does not operate on a 24 hour basis,”.
A registered clinical officer, Ms Peris Wangechi urges Marie Stopes Kenya to consider extending mentorship and on-job-training to Community Health Promoters to enable as many women, girls and men to be able to be sensisted on the availability of PAC and other family planning services that are currently been provided at the hospital which is located in the densely-populated and sprawling Mathare slum area.
Ms Wangechi revealed that between January to July 2024, some 60 cases requiring PAC services were handled at the health facility.
