When it comes to family planning, Health Minister Major Courage Quashigah says he has one wish: that God should re-create men to carry pregnancy, as sea horses do, albeit for a short period.

This, according to him, would help solve the problem of inconsiderate men and husbands who continue to worry their wives for more children, in spite of the health problems associated with unplanned childbirth.

Major Quashigah made these observations in Accra when he launched a family planning campaign to stimulate men to discuss family planning with their peers and partners.

He noted that in many African countries, men are perceived to represent a major obstacle to women’s involvement in family planning and other reproductive health service.

The campaign, being run under the banner "Are you a real man? Real men plan their families," is being sponsored by USAID, Ghana Health Service and the Ghana Sustainable Change Project .

The Minister said the campaign was not about asking Ghanaians not to have children at all.

"The issue is having the number of children you can adequately provide for and spacing the birth for optimal health for both mother and children," he said.

He said even though 25 per cent of married women in the country practised contraception, Ghana had an exceptionally high, unmet need for family planning.

"This means that, one in three women in Ghana who want delayed birth, spaced pregnancy or to stop child bearing altogether, are not using any reliable method of contraception to do so," he said.

The Minister said while men were not always opposed to family planning per se they did not want their partners to make decisions without them, or to conceal the use of contraception. That threatened their power and control in the household and the community.

He identified lack of honest and open communication between couples as a major obstacle to family planning hence the need for such a campaign.

"A real man, is the man who talks to his partner about family planning and plans his family with his partner," the minister said.

Dr. Henrietta Odoi-Agyarko, Deputy Director of the Reproductive and Child Health Unit of GHS said her outfit was running child welfare and male friendly clinics to enable men to participate in family planning activities.

Ms Regina R. Dennis, USAID Programme Officer, said the campaign aimed at stimulating men to take interest in spacing the birth of their children without engaging their wives or partners in unsafe abortions.

Source: The Ghanaian Times