Promoting Men’s Involvement in Family Planning: Its’ Implication for Social Work Practice in Nigeria

Abstract

Family planning which is defined as the practices that help individuals or couples to attain certain objectives, avoid unwanted pregnancies, regulate intervals between pregnancies, control the time at which birth occurs in relation to the ages of the parents and determine the number of children in the family has become a household topic considering the population of the world especially the developing world and the number of unwanted pregnancies among youths.  Lack of adequate information on family planning, religious beliefs and misconceptions about artificial family planning among social workers and their clients in Nigeria have continued to influence men’s involvement in family planning. Therefore, there is a need for adequate training of social workers in family planning and reorientation of social workers on the misconceptions of family planning in order to enable them to promote men’s involvement in family planning for a healthy society.

Keywords: Men, Family Planning, Social Work, Social Workers, Nigeria