The Higher Population Council, in cooperation with the Pharmacists Syndicate and the Ministry of Health, and with the support of Share-Net Jordan, organized a training workshop specialized in consultation on methods of regulating childbirth/ family planning.
The workshop, which lasted for three days, was designed to increase the knowledge of pharmacists on ways to regulate childbirth and offer consultation and information to people who frequent pharmacies in all local communities.
Dr. Issa Al-Masarweh, HPC Secretary-General, stated that pharmacists have a major role on the national level in providing means, information and consultation to regulate childbirth to spouses who frequent pharmacies. This information is to meet spouses’ reproductive desires and needs in terms of the right time to start a family and/or spacing the births so as to allow the mother the chance to care for her health and the health of her children, educate them and meet their needs.
Dr. Al-Masarweh held a session during the workshop on the national framework for reproductive health, regulation of childbirth and the demographic reality in the Kingdom. Dr. Al-Masarweh pointed to the degree of the need of spouses to regulate birth and the current and projected demand for modern methods of childbirth regulation available in pharmacies throughout the Kingdom.
During the workshop, Mrs. Rania Al-Abbadi, HPC Assistant Secretary-General, gave a presentation on the trends, methods and sources of regulating childbirth. Mrs. Al-Abbadi pointed to the percentage the pharmacists sector meets in terms of demand for modern methods of birth control.
Attending the workshop was a considerable number of pharmacists from various governorates in the Kingdom. Dr. Zina Khreisat, Dr. Nadia Al-Safadi and Fadia Jabr from the Women and Child Directorate/ Ministry of Health provided the training. The workshop addressed a number of issues relevant to birth control and aimed at educating and exhibiting positive attitudes among pharmacists to increase their role in providing counselling and services on childbirth regulation to spouses who come to them for guidance and assistance.
Overall, the workshop covered the following topics:
- needs and consequences relevant to childbirth regulation
- rights of beneficiaries, beliefs and attitudes of service providers, behaviour change
- interpersonal communication skills
- interaction between beneficiary and service and counselling providers according to the Recruitment, Engagement, Diversity, and Inclusion (REDI) Strategy
- a map of birth control methods and the effectiveness of each
- traditional methods of birth control and monitoring and determining the fertility period
- counselling and factors affecting the ‘decision making’
- instructions on how to use support and counselling materials
- the difference between side effects and complications resulting from birth control methods and means and how to address each of them
- myths and misconceptions related to birth control and how to react to them.
The workshop concluded with a number of recommendations to enhance the role of pharmacists in regulating childbirth and reproductive health programs. Recommendations included:
- developing a plan to compile data so as to monitor and assess the changes and reasons spouses resort to private-sector pharmacies to meet their reproductive needs
- providing pharmacies with educational materials
- continuing to target pharmacists in capacity-building activities on issues of reproductive health.
Towards the end of the workshop, participants were awarded certificates of completion by Dr. Issa Masarweh, HPC Secretary General and Dr. Mohammad Ababneh, Director of Pharmacists Syndicate.
