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Society for Family Health harps on child spacing as a way to minimizes socio-economic impact on women. 

To reduce the impact of hardships experienced across the country due to economic realities of the time, women have been advised to take advantage of child spacing to ensure better and healthier lives for themselves and their families. 

Mrs. Loveth Omeje-Ugwuanyi, the Social Behaviour Change and Communication Consultant at the DISC Project of the Society for Family Health (SFH) in Enugu, gave this advice while speaking at the outreach sensitization programme for women at Uwani General Hospital in Enugu. “Anything that affects women affects the whole household, and if women are not empowered, society will not gain much. Hence, they need to be sensitized and encouraged to gain the knowledge that if they space their children, they will fare better because they will be healthier to invest in," she said.

According to Mrs. Omeje-Ugwuanyi, "SFH, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, through the Delivering Innovation in Self Care (DISC) Project, has been working on sensitization and awareness with an emphasis on the importance of child spacing. “If women know that they can plan their families and space their children, life would be easier for them and their immediate families because only healthy women can engage in something meaningful” she added.

In her address, the family planning Supervisor for Enugu South, Mrs. Sarah Ugwu, expressed her gratitude to SFH for all the support on issues concerning women and children. She added that the Enugu State Ministry of Health has been working with partners to sensitize women on sexual and reproductive health with an emphasis on child spacing. According to her, "child spacing is not only necessary, but every woman should be encouraged to embrace it. With the current challenges, the benefits of child spacing are enormous”. She described the family planning program in Enugu State as encouraging, highlighting the significant efforts of the state government in primary healthcare. 

All experts at the Clinic Outreach encouraged women to adopt child spacing methods on a large scale, emphasizing the considerable benefits for mothers, children and spouses.

The SFH regular clinic event held at Uwani General Hospital featured discussions on various

family planning methods, including contraceptive self-injection.

The DISC Project also conducts community mobilization to raise awareness among Women of Reproductive Age, Youth, and Adolescents about the benefits of child spacing, creating demand for family planning services and providing referrals to health facilities for quality care.

Participants were sensitized on personal and environmental hygiene, immunization, and various family planning methods, including contraceptive self-injection. The discussions also emphasized clients' ability to self-inject when deciding on DMPA-SC. They asked critical questions on family planning issues and received answers.

The event attracted many attendees who numbered over 200 women sought health education, routine immunization, and access to available family planning services. END

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