A ten-day training workshop on Intra-Utrine Device (IUD) for fifteen midwives, organised by Action for West Africa Region -Reproductive Health (AWARE-RH), is currently underway at the NaNA Confernce Hall in Kanifing, sponsored by USAID.

In an interview with the Daily Observer, Dr Simon Nchifor, Family Planning Adviser, said AWARE-RH's mission, is to reinforce capacities and skills in reproductive health and family planning. He added that they are here to reposition family planning.

He then added that the workshop participants, who are drawn from different health facilities (public and private) will be trained on how to use the Intra-Utrine Device (IUD), as well as to discuss its importance in birth- spacing.

"There are a lot of new information and new techniques of inserting the IUD. We will during the course of the training share this knowledge and skills with the midwives   during the workshop . This method is highly and cost effective and can be used for more than twelve (12) years. When a woman wants to have a baby, it can be removed at anytime but only by a trained midwife", Dr Nchifor revealed.

"This service is free in The Gambia and we encourage all married women to go in for proper counselling about the IUD,"   he noted.

In Africa , he said, "one out of every 15 women, run the risk of dying during the process of pregnancy and delivery, whilst in the Western world, one out of over sixteen thousand (16,000) run the same risk" .