Family planning services are available in all health centers in Salahaddin province and encourage birth spacing in order to provide a healthy life.
The services available in different parts of the province, on family planning and childbirth spacing, are part of a wider project that the Iraqi Ministry of Health has been implementing for years and is coming to an end this year.
Ilham Abdulhadi Juburi, a family doctor who is also the director of a health training center in Salahaddin, told KirkukNow that family planning is available in all health centers in the province.
The Iraqi Federal Government has a national strategy for family planning and childbirth interval for 2020-2025 and is currently in the final stages of implementation to increase the childbearing interval to at least two to three years by providing health services and contraceptives.
The project was launched in late 2020, under the supervision of the Iraqi Ministry of Health MOH and in coordination with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), as a roadmap to improve maternal and child health, reduce mortality, fight poverty, and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
Umm Mohammed, who lives in Balad district in southern Salahaddin, was told she is pregnant while her little baby was only one-year-old. After talking to the doctor at a health center, she was given instructions, including vaccinations on time and managing the family's income.
She said they asked her about her family, income, lifestyle, etc.
“Then I realized that this information is for us to help us and guide us on how to maintain the distance between childbirth, because it has many positive benefits, like giving children a suitable space for education and care,” she told KirkukNow.
She says having a period between childbirths helps the mother herself, who puts in a lot of effort, to take better care of her health and that of her baby.
If the interval between childbirths were increased to just two years, the mortality rate of children aged one to four would be reduced by 21 percent and infant mortality by 10 percent, according to the MOH strategy.
Umm Mohammed was given posters and printed guidelines full of information about family planning procedures at a public health center.
“We have talked about it with my husband and friends at work, and there is a good understanding about family planning.”
As emphasized more than once throughout the five-year strategy; the main goals of family planning and maintaining the interval between childbirth, two or three years, are to fight poverty, protect the lives of mothers and babies, provide more appropriate health services, and better education for children.
The family doctor in Salahaddin said that despite the rural population in the province, through awareness campaigns, posters, and guidelines, they have been able to explain the procedures and ways of family organization to the locals during childbirth.
Salahaddin has a population of more than 1.8 million, more than half of which is rural.
The birth rate per 1,000 people reached 20.5, over 66 percent of deliveries were in health facilities, and 33 percent were outside institutions, the live delivery rate reached 99.7 percent," she added.
Since the announcement of the strategy, the Iraqi government has been encouraging citizens to increase the interval between childbirth to two to three years through the media and social media. Iraq's fertility rate is still among the highest in the region.
According to Salahaddin Health, family planning reduces maternal mortality by 30 percent, in addition to reducing other health risks of premature pregnancy and miscarriage, blood pressure, and infection.
The Family Planning and Spacing Strategy, as emphasized in its principles, elaborates that the state is primarily responsible for providing family planning services as part of the pregnancy health package according to international quality standards.
