There was a time when Fiji’s family planning campaign was described as a failure. This was in 1980 when authorities failed to bring down the birthrate that had remained high since 1968.
According to The Fiji Times on Sunday, March 2, 1980, the birthrate was stuck at about 30 births per 1000 people but the Government still aimed at reducing the rate to 22 per 1000.
A statement from the Minister for Health, Mr Ted Beddoes, said there would have to be a 40 per cent increase in the number of people using family controls and contraception to achieve the new birth rate intended by authorities.
Only about 24 per cent of Fiji’s population in 1980 practised family planning.
The official family planning program began in Fiji in 1962 with the target of lowering the birth rate to 30 per 1000 by 1970. This new rate was achieved by 1968 but remained there.
he program had aimed at reaching a rate of 25 per 1000 by 1975 and 20 by 1980.
Mr Beddoes said because of cultural objections there was no distribution of condoms through commercial channels.
But since 1968 the number of people using them had risen steadily to 6000.
Female sterilization was the famous popular form of contraception in 1980. A ministry spokesman said this was because women were more responsive to family planning advice after going through the stress and dangers of childbirth.
The use of contraceptive injections, Depoprovera affected the use of the oral contraceptive pill and loop, he said.
Use of the pill reached a peak in 1972 and dropped to second place. Vasectomes to sterilise men were still rare in Fiji in 1980 despite the official support, “because of cultural objections,” Mr Beddoes said.
A new family planning training centre was built in the new maternity ward of the Colonial War Memorial Hospital in Suva.
