Training on Emergency Contraception given to Women Employees of ECSU
HIV and AIDS Management Unit organized a half day training on emergency contraception to seventy five women employees of ECSU drawn from General Service Department. The training was given to the employees divided in three groups by Dr. Girma Alemayehu, a gynecologist and obstetrician as well as a reproductive health consultant working at ECSU clinic, on September 3 and 4, 2013.
Emergency Contraception pills, according to Dr. Girma, can be used by women who don’t want to be pregnant after an unplanned and unprotected sexual intercourse. They have to be taken within 72 hours after the unprotected sexual intercourse.He said"they can also be used when there is incorrect and inconsistent use of contraceptives like breakage or slippage of condom, expulsion of IUD or when contraceptive pills are forgotten to be taken for two consecutive days."
He told the trainees that every year 45 million women undergo abortion across the world, and 20 million of these abortions are carried out under unsafe conditions. To avoid these abortions, Dr. Girma said, emergency contraceptives are important as they are eighty to ninety percent reliable in preventing unwanted pregnancy.He also indicated that though contraceptive pills are used to prevent unwanted pregnancy, they don't protect from HIV.
Some people and religious leaders think that emergency contraceptive kills fertilized egg. Dr. Girma told the trainees that emergency contraceptive doesn’t stop pregnancy once the egg is fertilized. It prevents pregnancy by stopping a sperm cell that is heading to the fallopian tube before it fertilizes an egg. The gynecologist further said that emergency contraceptive can never replace regular contraceptives as there is a 10 to 20 percent risk of getting pregnant after it is taken.
Dr. Girma told a journalist from the External and Public Relations Department of ECSU that unwanted pregnancies have lots of negative consequences, it is very important to prevent them. He further said that
"particularly women who are less educated need such training as they are more vulnerable to unwanted pregnancy because of lack of awareness about emergency contraceptives."
He thanked the ESCU HIV and AIDS Management Unit (HAMU) for organizing the training. Dr. Girma Alemayehu underlined the need to organize trainings on reproductive health on a regular basis to students and employees of ECSU to bring about tangible change. He expressed his interest to discuss with HAMU to provide similar other trainings on regular basis.
Tiruwork Abebe, one participants of the training, said the training was important and useful to women so that they can prevent unwanted pregnancies. She said, “The training is so good that I can now teach other women.” Another trainee, Alem Abera said, “This training is really useful. Many women face serious problems when they have unwanted pregnancy. Some even commit suicide.” Beletech Mulugeta on her part said, “The training was good. I liked it. I have heard about emergency contraceptive but I didn’t have broad knowledge and detail information about it.”