Malewezi
A non-governmental organisation has encouraged women and girls in the country to use emergency contraceptive pills after unprotected sex to avoid unwanted pregnancy which leads to unsafe abortion.
The NGO, called DKT Women Care Global, made the call in Lilongwe after launching its products called MisoFem, Misomife-Fem Combo and postpill.
Speaking at the event, representative of DKT Women Global Care who is also a public health specialist Dr. Bridget Malewezi said abortion cases are rising in Malawi because most girls and even some teenagers are not using protection during sex and this is leading to unwanted pregnancy among them.
Malewezi also noted that unsafe abortion is bad and it is causing some diseases on women like fistula and cancer, hence using emergency contraceptive pills can help in reducing cases of unsafe abortion because the pills prevent women from getting pregnant whenever they have had unprotected sex.
“We have launched MisoFem, Misomife-Fem Combo, and the post pill which is going to be one additional variety of brand of emergency contraceptive in the country.
“We already have others available but the uptake in Malawi is relatively low, 13000 per year, which is not reflective to the number of women and girls who require contraceptives in this country,” said Malewezi.
Malewezi further noted that the idea of having contraceptive pills is aimed at providing options to a woman or a girl.
“Someone who had unprotected sexual intercourse for example within the first 72 to 120 hours, if they take emergency contraceptive pill, they could prevent that unwanted pregnancy so they don’t need to even abort that pregnancy weeks later. So the idea is that this provides an option but doesn’t replace the need for safe abortion, it just provides another option that protect our women because as you know a lot of women are dying from unsafe abortion in this country and this help the situation in some ways,” said Malewezi.
According to Malewezi, the products which were launched are available through woman care global’s partner and Intermed.
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