Lakshmi Kothaneth - lakshmiobserver@gmail.com - It is the World Population today and this year’s theme is ‘birth spacing’. Each country has its own story. For Oman, this year’s theme of World Population Day takes us back to the speech that His Majesty Sultan Qaboos delivered in 1993.
Birth spacing initiative did achieve success because in the 1980s fertility rate was 10 per woman. It has now declined to 3.2. Births per woman in reproductive age (15-49 years of age) in the early 90s was still high compared with the neighbouring countries, says a study.
According to officials at the Ministry of Health (MoH), the initiation of birth spacing services became easier following His Majesty’s declaration regarding the Sultanate’s high population growth rate and large average family size.
The message was further carried on by various ministries in different ways and the Ministry of Health began its campaign in 1994. “His Majesty’s words were the trigger for the birth spacing programme. The programme implementation went through different phases that had a variety of intervention strategies and targets for each phase,” said the ministry officials.
“It is all about empowering women,” said Dr Fatma bint Ibrahim al Hinai, Director of Woman and Child Health Department at MoH.
She, however, quickly pointed out, while being at UNFPA’s sub-regional office for the GCC countries located in Oman, “We need to work a lot more.”
There are challenges. In 2015, 38 per cent of women were recorded as having three-year birth spacing recorded through the MoH’s health centres. But 55 per cent of women were not able to reach out to the birth spacing services.
The question that is asked is whether it’s the services or the community which is preventing them from accessing the services, said Dr Fatma. There are multiple reasons according to her.
Career-oriented women, on one side, want to achieve the best in qualifications to enhance career growth. On the other hand, they face challenges in coping with the biological clock.
“It is all to do with the mindset. A woman till today is influenced by her surroundings,” says Dr Fatma.
MoH is collaborating with UNFPA to extend the awareness. One of the initiatives is distance learning. “Asr Toson, UNFPA Representative in Oman, said, “The Ministry of Health is investing in capacity-building. I would like to congratulate all the families in Oman for the World Population Day under the theme family planning and birth spacing. I like to highlight the importance of birth spacing for the whole family and the women of Oman.”
Oman has taken a leap in improving maternal and infant mortality. “There are many challenges, whether it is at the community level or at the level of health institutions. We are trying to overcome them,” added Dr Fatma.
The services are available and there is access but we need to increase community awareness on the importance of birth spacing.
The initiative has reached the secondary school level as well and is called ‘Facts of Life’. “They are more like a bulletin. We can choose any topic and do research,” said a former student who is pursuing higher studies.
Another male student now in university said it was easy for him to recall the health topics covered in the bulletin. “From AIDS to cancer and birth spacing to diabetes, the bulletin used to shed light on various health issues. I was in my 11th grade and I found it enlightening.”
The population of Oman enters into another demographic era. The millennials of Oman is similar to millennials in any other part of the world influenced by knowledge at finger tips, yet guided by messages of traditions conveyed through families and communities.
Lifestyle sees a different outlook for the empowered women of today. Health services are there now just to ensure the message reaches out to all — the gap of three years — two years for breast-feeding and one year to have complete health for the mother and child. So here is to a healthy family — Happy World Population Day.
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
