Family planning demand up almost one third

Dan Buckley

The annual figure for the Well Woman clinics alone is expected to rise from 3,500 a year to about 5,000.

To cope, clinics have had to start opening on Sundays and services operated by the Well Woman clinics and the Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA) have recorded their busiest Christmas ever.

Christmas was "immensely busy", especially since it fell on a weekend and the opening hours of clinics run by both groups were limited.

Even though they were not operating fully over Christmas, the Well Woman clinics saw 141 women between Christmas Eve and January 2 for emergency contraception, the Irish Medical News has reported. The clinics were closed on Christmas Day, Stephen's Day and New Year's Eve.

The decision to open on Sundays follows a study which has shown that although women are generally well informed about emergency contraception, the main barriers that can stop them from accessing it are issues of locality and accessibility, according to Well Woman chief executive Alison Begas.

"In particular, many women find it hard to access at weekends. We found our appointments on Fridays and Mondays were being totally booked up so we were unable to cater for those seeking emergency contraception after the weekend," Ms Begas said.

"We have treated people from Monaghan, Carlow, Wexford and Galway and anecdotally we know that they find it hard to get these services at home.

"Demand has risen by 30% since September. We were seeing about 70 women a week. That figure has now gone up to about 95 a week," she said.

The IFPA has also extended its emergency contraception service to Sundays.

Its director of pregnancy counselling, Rosie Toner, said: "Most people do their socialising at weekends, and this is when most incidents of unprotected sex happen.

The new Sunday service will mean that women can avail of emergency contraception within hours of unprotected sex or contraceptive failure. The earlier emergency contraception is taken, the more effective it will be."

A study by the Crisis Pregnancy Agency has shown that sexually active young adults have a strong tendency for sexual risk-taking and poor levels of fertility knowledge.

These are significant contributory factors in the scale and seriousness of crisis pregnancy, said the agency's chairperson, Olive Braiden.

"The age of first sexual intercourse in Ireland is dropping the majority of young people now have had their first sexual experience by the age of 18," said Ms Braiden.