Happily Strung Along: In Senegal, Women Count Beads as Contraception
THIÈS, Senegal –“I decided to use family planning after having three children,” explains Ourousse Diop. She, like a growing number of women in Thiès and around Senegal, chose to take charge of her reproduction with the help of CycleBeads.
After three quick, successive pregnancies -- the first when she was just 18 -- Ourousse and her husband decided to make a change. But the contraceptive pill she first took gave her migraines. Unsatisfied and open to alternatives, Ourousse listened with interest when a neighbor introduced her to CycleBeads.
CycleBeads were developed by researchers at Georgetown University to assist women who wish to use natural methods of family planning. A portable, durable, and renewable calendar, the ring contains 32 colored beads that represent each day in a woman’s monthly reproductive cycle. For a woman with a regular menstrual cycle that falls between 26 and 32 days in length, CycleBeads can identify when she is most likely to conceive. During that time, she and her partner either abstain from sex or use another form of protection.
Sub-Saharan Africa has some of the highest rates of maternal and infant mortality in the world. A woman living in sub-Saharan Africa has a lifetime maternal death risk of one in 16. In Senegal, the lifetime risk is one in 22 – lower than the regional average, but still more than 100 times the risk in Western countries.
Despite the great need, couples often encounter roadblocks to better reproductive health. Shortages of low-cost contraception and religious and cultural beliefs put women at risk for early and frequent pregnancies.
Alain Prual, a maternal health expert for UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, explains that one reason West African birth rates are high is because child mortality rates are also high.
“Families want to be sure their children reach adulthood,” Prual says. “Many of these countries lack social services, so parents want to know that during retirement, they will have children who can care for them.”
Regrettably, he says, there is also a common misconception that family planning itself leads to infertility.
This is why CycleBeads are particularly suited to West Africa, where the influence of religion is high and contraceptive prevalence is low. Though the beads do not protect against HIV or other sexually transmitted infections, a major appeal is that they are entirely natural and without side effects.
CycleBeads offer an additional contraceptive option for women who have religious or health concerns about other methods, or for whom cost or availability may be an issue. For this reason the beads may increase the number of women who choose to manage their fertility.
Men’s full support and cooperation is key
Though a woman may use other forms of birth control, such as oral contraceptives, without her partner’s knowledge, CycleBeads require a partner’s full support and cooperation. “It is crucial to work with everyone—not just women—to improve maternal health,” Prual says.
Ourousse’s own husband works in the Senegalese capital Dakar during the week. “It is difficult if I am on the white beads during the weekend, when my husband is home,” she says. Nevertheless, he fully supports of her use of CycleBeads.