Public health workers laud Marie Stopes Kenya experts for quality family planning training

When family planning nurse Esther Momanyi, 32, joined Nairobi’s Kahawa West level three hospital in 2021, she had minimal experience in the provision of post abortion care (PAC) and other family planning services to her patients.
“However, this changed after the hospital and Marie Stopes Kenya entered into a partnership to mentor and offer on-job-training to health workers deployed at the facility…
“I was among the first lucky beneficiaries to be trained, and within no time, I was able to competently provide PAC services as well as other family planning services such as insertion and removal of Intrauterine devices (IUDs) as well as implants among others,”.
Apart from mentoring and offering on-job training to the health workers, in the ongoing partnership Marie Stopes Kenya has now ensured patients are now able to access quality family planning and sexual reproductive health services such as tubal ligation, vasectomy as well as post abortion care services to those in dire need of emergency services.
At the same time, Ms Momanyi says Marie Stopes is also providing adequate equipment such as manual vacuum aspiration kits which are vital during the provision of post abortion care services as well as documentation and other tools which have enhanced the provision of care.
“Due to the partnership, our facility has now become ‘friendly’ in the way we provide family planning and sexual reproductive services especially to our youth resulting in a higher uptake as well as increase in the number of adolescents seeking services at the facility,”.
Currently, on average between 25 to 30 clients are provided with family planning and post care services daily at the facility.
“Between January to June 2024, for example, 683 clients visited the facility with 520 inserted with long-term implants while 163 received IUDs with 12 men and 18 women undergoing vasectomy and tubal ligation (BTL) respectively,” Ms Momanyi noted.
At the same time, the nurse says Community Health Promoters (CHPs) in the sub-county are playing a crucial role in mobilising women and youth in the constituency by covening family planning in-reach sensitisation meetings at the grassroots.
“During the meetings, the CHPs are able to dialogue with women, youth and men on some of the myths and misconceptions on the existing family planning methods offered at the hospital…
“The ripple-effect from the dialogue has resulted in increased uptake of clients demanding both family planning and PAC services in our hospital thereby saving lives as a majority are empowered to shun undergoing harmful illegal abortion procedures by quacks following the sensitisation,”.
Ms Momanyi says following the ongoing partnership with Marie Stopes, the hospital has now integrated family planning and maternal health services where mothers are able to choose family planning methods of their choice after delivery.
Speaking at the hospital recently, Ms Rose Mwangi, 26, who is a mother of three children—two boys and a girl—explained that she had visited the institution so that she could undergo a tubal ligation procedure.
Ms Mwangi, a single mother who hails from Ol-Joro-Orok in Nyandarua county said: “I realised I was pregnant with my first child as I was undertaking my Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examinations…
“Despite the pregnancy, I scored a B- grade result but I was unable to fulfil my dream of pursuing a career in Journalism after I gave birth and later separated with my boyfriend with whom we had started living together in Ruiru town, Kiambu county,”.
Ms Mwangi added: “After later giving birth to two more children, I have decided to get a BTL procedure done here. Am also extremely happy at how the health workers have handled me since I arrived at the facility,”.
At the same time, a community mobiliser, Ms Lucy Kariuki, 27, says her role involves creating awareness on the different types of family planning and sexual reproductive health services available at the hospital especially to adolescents and young girls in schools, colleges and universities.
“Through peer-to-peer counseling, am able to engage young mothers on the importance of family planning as well as urging them on dangers posed by illegal (back street) abortions which are common among our age-group…
“Since we are age-mates, a majority are able to open up to me and they end up embracing seeking family planning and post abortion care services under the care of trained health workers,”.
Ms Kariuki added: “At the same time, I have been discouraging young girls from buying the highly popular Postinor 2 from chemists as prolonged use could damage the uterus resulting in miscarriages in future…
“Instead, I encourage them to embrace long-term family planning methods such Intrauterine devices (IUD) or implants which are provided free-of-charge in public health facilities,”.
The National Council on Population and Development (NCPD) director, Dr Mohammed Sheikh says 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 STIs and HIV/Aids.
According to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (2022), contraceptive prevalence rate in the country stands at 58.1 per cent.
At the same time, barriers Kenyan women encounter in deciding and using family planning methods may be contributing to the 18.6 per cent unmet need for family planning.
“Currently, 14 per cent of married women aged 15 to 49 years and 19 per cent of sexually active unmarried women in the same age-group have an unmet need for family planning,” the survey reveals.