Nars holds training for family planning nurses, receives contraceptive samples from UNFPA |16 November 2019

Dr Ndahinyuka hands over samples of the contraceptive implants, accessories and placebo kits to Nars chairperson Rosie Bistoquet (Photo: Louis Toussaint)

A group of nurses who provide family planning, sexual and reproductive health services and education have followed a two-day training on how to insert and manage contraceptive implants.

Organised by the Nurses Association of Seychelles (Nars) for its members, the training was led by a consultant from the United Nations Fund for Population Activity (UNFPA) Dr Jovith Ndahinyuka from the Madagascar office as well as Dr Robert Michel, local gynaecologist/principal medical officer among other obstetricians and gynaecologists.

The launch of the training was attended by Nars chairperson Rosie Bistoquet, the association’s secretary Monica Servina, Jude Fred, the chairperson of Ceps of which Nars is a member.

During the launch of the training on Thursday morning at Care House, Dr Ndahinyuka handed over samples of the contraceptive implants, accessories and placebo kits to Nars to be used mostly during the training.

A provider of global leadership in increasing access to family planning, the UNFPA acknowledges that Nars is doing a remarkable job in empowering its members and is providing technical support for the training.

Dr Ndahinyuka noted that reproductive health is a right and all families have this right to make informed choices when it comes to the type of contraception and family planning method to choose from in order to better space out the number of children or limit pregnancies to achieve the healthiest outcomes for both the mothers and the newborns.

Ms Bistoquet on her part pointed out that the training would not have been possible without the strategic direction derived from recommendations of a consultative forum for nurses and midwives conducted in May 2017. During the forum nurses raised the concerns that while family planning services are accessible to all in Seychelles, being available in most health centres, the current contraceptive prevalence rate has been dropping over the past few years thus the need to increase new methods to give a wider choice to women.

With regard to the new implant version, Ms Bistoquet noted that contraceptive implants already form part of the range of contraceptive on offer here but in another form noting that the new range is more modern and less cumbersome to insert. She said the implants are long active reversible family planning methods whose life span ranges from two, three and five years. She added that discussions are ongoing to decide on which type and life span range to adopt but preferably it will be the two-year lifespan.

As Nars’ mandate is advocacy, training and empowerment, adoption and roll out of the new contraceptive will depend on the different service providers.

Marie-Anne Lepathy