World Contraception Day will be marked around the world on Sunday (today) and to highlight the importance of the Day Bayer Pakistan organised a symposium at a local hotel here on Saturday. World Contraception Day is a world-wide campaign that takes place on September 26 every year and the campaign centres around a vision for 'a world where every pregnancy is wanted'.
Speakers at the symposium said that there were more than five million pregnancies in Pakistan during 2007. "If our women do not use contraceptives there will be over 6.5 million pregnancies in the year 2015, they said, adding that family planning methods decreases number of abortions."
According to Pakistan Demographic Health Survey (PDHS) 2008 more than 50 percent of married women in the country require contraception and more than half among them do not get it due to a number of reasons. The survey further said almost every fourth woman wants to delay another pregnancy, but they do not have access to modern contraceptive methods, they said.
They said 22 percent of married women are using modern methods of family planning, and only 2 percent use the pills. Elaborating importance of the day, they said World Contraception day is celebrated to create awareness about contraception amongst married couples. Series of symposiums held throughout the country to highlight the importance of the World contraception Day.
This year's campaign is supported by Bayer Schering Pharma and driven by a coalition of Asian Pacific Council on Contraception (APCOC), Centro Latinamericano Salud y Mujer (CELSAM), European Society of Contraception and Reproductive Health (ESC), German Foundation for World Population (DSW), International Federation of Paediatric and Adolescent Gynaecology (FIGIJ), International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), Marie Stops International (MSI), Pan American Health and Education Foundation (PAHEF), Population Council and United States Agency for International Development (USAID).