By Amos Tauna
No doubt, uptake of child spacing services has increased in Kaduna State, thanks to effort of organisations like the Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (NURHI), which took upon itself the task of creating awareness and ensuring that people understand how the practice improves the chance of women to survive from pregnancy related deaths.
This has created demand in Kaduna state, leading to massive turn out, especially in the 73 facilities spread across 15 local government Areas of the state.
A recent visit by journalists to some of the Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs), and General Hospitals reveals that there is shortage of commodities, i.e. pills, condoms, implants, IUDs, for women to access, in order to space their births.
The state government has provided N100 million naira in this year’s budget, but till date no item has been procured for the women who want to access the service.
At PHC Kafanchan, in Jema’a LGA, the demand of consumables for effective maintenance of child spacing has outweighed the supply – leaving the women to return home without accessing service.
The Family Planning service provider, Patience Nuhu Akapson, expressed delight that the family planning unit in the centre renovated by NURHIÂ has further encouraged couples to embrace and ensure the maximum use of the facilities, stressing that the number of women coming for child spacing has increased.
AFRICA PRIME NEWS however discovered that in circumstances where there is shortfall of the consumables, patients have to go back home disappointed, or purchase same from a private vendor, while those who could not afford would remain unassisted.
At the Sir Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa Memorial General Hospital, Kafanchan, the Medical Director, Dr. Gyawiya Gajere, commended NURHI for equipping the family planning unit with all the necessary equipment.
“The coming of NURHI to the hospital has further enhanced our service delivery, especially with special attention to women in child spacing.
NURHI furnished the office given to them and all the necessary consumables required for full uptake.
“You can see for yourselves that a unique place was chosen for the family planning, so that women will not be distracted, but to ensure they have a free and conducive environment that will take care of their needs,” he explained.
The Family Planning service provider, Gunatu Kure, assured that the centre has capacity to offer all methods and handle complain from any woman as regards child spacing.
She explained that even before the coming of NURHI, couples have embraced child spacing, pointing out that since November last year when NURHI provided the necessary facilities to the hospital, there has been a massive number of women coming to the hospital on daily basis for all types of implants.
Shortage of commodities have continued to affect uptake of services in most facilities where child spacing services are rendered.
The Jema’a experience is the same as obtained in public health facilities in Soba, Giwa, Kaduna North, Kaduna South, and Chikun, among LGAs visited recently.
Communication Officer of Family Health Advocates in Nigeria Initiative (FHANI), Hauwa Saulawa, says, their NGO has been advocating for the timely release of N100 million provided in the 2017 Kaduna State budget for procurement of child 
spacing commodities and consumables, aimed at providing items for women to access the service.
She said women in the state have been coming to facilities for service, but they were made to pay between N300 – N500 to access service. This according to her has been discouraging them from going for the services.
“We have recently been conducting town hall meeting with NURHI to encourage more women to space their birth, to reduce the high rate of maternal deaths in the state,” she said.
In a chat with AFRICA PRIME NEWS, the Kaduna State Team Leader of NURHI, Kabir Abdullahi, said their model adopted working with religious and traditional rulers to generate demand.
“We have also supported the state government in training of service providers. We didn’t just renovate facilities, we made sure there are people capable of rendering service in all the facilities we are working with.
“Go to all the facilities where we have carried out intervention and trained workers, you will notice high volume of women coming for service. They are confident of the service providers to provide them with the service,” he said.
Kaduna state government must rise to the occasion of providing commodities and consumables for women in the state.
All child spacing commodities are supplied free of charge to the state government by the Federal Government and 
UNFPA for use, yet women have continued to purchase commodities and consumables to access service.
There is need for government to expedite action and procure needed items to save more women, especially in Kaduna state, where over 1,000 women die out of every 100,000 delivering children in the state.
