by Niamh Brown

Created on: June 12, 2011   Last Updated: June 13, 2011

"If youth knew; if age could" ~ Sigmund Freud

With the world population approaching 7 billion, there is no better time than now to be engaging with young people about family planning.

They are the next generation of parents and will affect "population growth for decades to come"[1] according to People and Planet in the article Family planning: myths versus facts (10 April 2009).

The World Health Assembly stated in Geneva in Prevention of violence: a priority health issue (May 25, 1996) "Successful transitions to adulthood, depend fundamentally on the twin building blocks of good education and good health."[2] Knowledge and care are our best avenues to help young people grow into sexual maturity in a healthy way. Like anything else that is swept under the carpet of stigma, whether due to ignorance, cultural pressures or other factors, it will only come back to bite us at some point. We have to be open about it.

When we teach the subject of sex it has to be treated sensitively and accurately, in ways that help young people understand this affects them too; while remembering the young often don't know their lives can change so drastically, because they don't know who they are yet. They often have no point A to allow them to imagine point B from.

In the World Health Organization study Social determinants of sexual and reproductive health they say, "changes in sexual and reproductive behaviours appear to have been more context-specific"[3] depending on where you are in the world as well as the class and culture you have been born into. Even those who get sexual education at school may find that it isn't adequate, leaving life to teach them the hard way. This means we all have to be teachers to be sure of keeping our kids sexually safe.

Whatever connects to young kids are avenues for us to help them explore and understand the risks of sex. However it is a difficult balance. It is possible to over-warn our children, as any daughter growing up under the care of an over- protective father during puberty can attest to. We must at some point be willing to let our children go about their lives, whilst providing them with the family planning support networks they need to call upon when they are ready.

However each community chooses to solve this issue of engagement with the young. The World Bank estimates the cost of family planning at $100 per life-year saved[3] and for the suffering, it would prevent from the many complications of abortions, teenage pregnancy, the spread of STD's; it's a price worth paying.

References:

1: People and Planet Article: Family planning: myths versus facts 10 April 2009 http://www.peopleandplanet.net/?lid=29050&topic=23&section=33

2: World Health Assembly. Prevention of violence: a priority health issue. Geneva: WHA; May 25, 1996 (Sixth plenary meeting. Committee B, fourth report, 3rd edition).

3: WHO Social determinants of sexual and reproductive health

http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2010/978924159 9528_eng.pdf

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