Zimbabwe's economic stability triggers baby boom

Child births have risen in Zimbabwe from 3,8 to 4,1 births per woman since 2006 in what many experts believe is a result of the economic stability the country is enjoying, a recent study has revealed.

Sub-Saharan Africa has the world's highest fertility rate with an average of 5,2 births per woman.

Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council deputy director Mr Jekoniya Chitereka said these figures mean an upward trend in the number of children per woman.

Experts, however, attributed the increase to economic stability being enjoyed in Zimbabwe while comparing the birth rate to trends from 1984 to 2009.

Zimbabwe is recovering from a decade-long hyper-inflationary environment blamed mainly on economic sanctions imposed by the West.

According to the Zimbabwe Demographic Health Survey (2010-2011), the average number of children per woman stood at 6,5 in 1984 before it went down to 5,4 in 1988.

The figure further declined to 3,8 in 2005 but has since risen to an average of 4,1 births per woman.

"Total Fertility Rate is generally defined as the average number of children that would be born to a woman over her lifetime and the current TFR shows that the number of children born per woman is increasing," Mr Chitereka said.

Health officials have also attributed the increase to unmet needs of family planning methods, which remained at 13 percent since 1999.

Addressing delegates attending the World Population Day on Wednesday this week, Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe also attributed the increased birth rates to low use of modern contraception or the limited range of contraception methods.

"If women in rural areas still have to walk long distances to access contraception methods, this is very discouraging," she said.

Thirteen percent of Zimbabwean women do not have access to family planning methods. Women in the rural areas are the worst affected.

The ZDHS revealed 24 percent of women began child-bearing between the ages of 15 and 19 years.

DPM Khupe said access to family planning could reduce unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortions. She urged Government and  stakeholders to play their part in reducing the unmet need of family planning through free distribution of the pill as is the case with condoms.

"Family planning education programmes should reach out to both men and women and provide accurate information on the risks of pregnancy, the benefits of child spacing, effects of contraception and encourage positive attitudes towards family planning," she said.

Health and Child Welfare acting secretary Dr Gibson Sibanda said Government was aiming at strengthening access to utilisation of family planning services by targeting vulnerable groups and hard to reach communities.

He said Government's target is to reduce the unmet need of family planning from 13 percent to 6,5 percent and increase the use of contraceptives from 59 percent to 68 percent by 2020.

This is expected to avert an estimated 780 000 unintended pregnancies, 110 500 unsafe abortions and 4 200 maternal deaths.

Dr Sibanda said to attain this goal, Government will improve the family planning policy environment and increase budgetary allocations.

"Specifically, we will review policies and strategies to support improved access for women and girls from the poorest wealth quintiles and we will remove user fees for family planning services by 2013," Dr Sibanda said.

He said the procurement of contraceptive commodities, which currently stands at 1,7 is also expected to increase to three percent.

Statistics from ZNFPC estimates that about six out of ten married women in Zimbabwe use modern family planning methods.

Women who use the pill account for 41 percent while those who use injectables accounts for eight percent.

About 30 percent of unmarried sexually active women use the male condom as a method of family planning and 18 percent use the pill.