Medical expert enumerates benefits of child spacing by married couples

Wed, Nov 13, 2019
By publisher
2 MIN READ

Health

A Medical Practitioner, Dr Arotiba Abayomi, on Wednesday, advised married couples to adhere strictly to the child spacing policy and regulations to avoid unwarranted medical challenges.

Abayomi, the Registrar, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Omu-Aran, Kwara.

He said that couples should ensure a minimum of two years spacing between their children, especially as it concerned women, to stay healthy.

According to him, such adherence to child spacing regulations became necessary in order to avoid premature death of foetus in the womb during another pregnancy.

He explained that inadequate spacing of children among couples could lead to over-population and equally posed challenges to the nation’s development plans.

Abayomi suggested that a woman should wait for a six months to be certified fit and healthy before aiming for another pregnancy in case of a miscarriage.

“Maternal anaemia (lack of enough blood in a woman due to delivery) could set in and pose great challenges to a woman if she conceived frequently without spacing her children.

“Frequent pregnancy can deny a woman the ability to practice exclusive breastfeeding which will in turn have adverse effects on the child at hand, especially infant deaths, malnutrition and or infections.

“Not spacing the children can lead to huge financial challenges on the family and the society as a whole as the children uncatered for, can constitute nuisance to the society.

“Over population resulting from not spacing the children also have adverse effects on the nation’s budget planning and policies, ’’ he said.

The medical practitioner listed girl-child education, women empowerment, media sensitisation, better government policies to allow women key into decision making and accessible healthcare services as critical keys to encourage child-spacing for a healthy family and society at large.

NAN

– November 13, 2019 @ 16:25 GMT |

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