The concept of health, according to the World Health Organization, is “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity“.
It is against this backdrop that, the center manager at Marie Stopes clinic, Madam Leticia Arthur, gives an insight into adolescent reproductive health and family planning, with regards giving information and counseling.
In a traditional Ghanaian home, it is a rare norm for parents to educate their children on reproduction, which tends to be dangerous on the part of the adolescent, given that they do their research and have an imprint of wrong information.
In an interview session on the Midmorning Lounge with Macall Mensah, Madam Leticia advises parents to open up to educate and give the right information to their children on reproductive health.
She noted that “whether or not we tell our children, they know. But the question is what do they know? So it is up to us as parents to open up and tell them. That is not to say you’re empowering them go and have sex so it is very important when your child gets to that stage, you sit the child down, talk about things with regarding sexuality”.
Madam Letitia confers that myths such as engaging adolescents in reproduction conversations will empower them to engage in sexual acts, sparks fear in the parents, and makes them hold back on having the conversation.
“One of those myths is that once i educate my child on sex, what I’m doing is that I’m going away from my morals and I’m introducing my child to the world so I don’t have to talk about it. It’s all about chastity and purity and all that”, she said.
She clarifies that it rather gives the adolescents the right information so they make the right decisions.
“When the child gets to a certain point in life, there’s nothing you can say that will sink, so it is the information you gave the child at the early stages that helps”.
She further gave an insight into family planning stating that apart from using it to space your birth, it can also be used to have children.
She advises people to visit a professional body that will be able to help them deal with the side effects that come with taking family planning medication.
She gave a clarification on how emergency contraceptives should be taken, stating that it is a bad light of family planning when the emergency contraceptives are taken immediately after engaging in sexual activities, when the pills should rather be taken at most twice in a year.
“When you take one of those emergency contraceptives, it’s like taking 50 of our injectables”, she stated.
