A recent UNFPA study blames this on contraceptive failure.

According to a new study released last week by the Guttmacher Institute and the United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, an estimated 80 million unintended pregnancies will occur in 2012 in the developing world as a result of contraceptive failure and non-use of contraceptives among women who do not want a pregnancy soon. These unintended pregnancies will result in 30 million unplanned births, 40 million abortions and 10 million miscarriages.

In Cameroon, the situation is not different as information from the UNFPA country office reveals that 61 per cent of women are likely to have unwanted pregnancies because they were using one contraceptive exclusively for one year (contraceptive failure) or had unmet needs for modern contraceptives, thus were not using any contraceptive method although they wanted to avoid a pregnancy.

UNFPA Representative in Cameroon, Alain Sibenaler says the 2004 Demographic Health Survey (DHS) shows that a total of 22.1 per cent of pregnancies, that is, 221.000 pregnancies in absolute terms, were either mistimed (17.4 per cent) or unwanted (4.7 per cent). Alain Sibenaler further notes that the DHS results of 2011 indicated that 26 per cent of women in Cameroon do not want to have children anymore while 35 per cent wanted another child later (after two years). But with the increasing unmet needs of family planning (FP) in the country, such women are not sure to meet their objective. Reason why the UNFPA boss says a total of 61 per cent of women in Cameroon are likely to have unwanted pregnancies, if they do not use contraceptive methods.

Reports from the Cameroon Society of Gynecologists and Obstetricians (SOGOC) shows that with the unmet needs for FP being very high and abortion being only semi-legal (to save the lives of the women), the prevalence of unsafe abortions is considered the main cause of maternal mortality in the country. Although statistics on this are scarce, Guttmacher Institute estimates that 20 per cent of women in their twenties undergo at least one abortion. In Cameroon, abortion rate is estimated at 2,3 per cent. Moreover, SOGOC estimates that 30-40 per cent of maternal mortality in Cameroon can be attributed to unsafe abortions representing 2007 to 2676 maternal deaths due to abortion each year.

Many reasons account for women not being able to use modern contraceptives such as limited availability and quality of FP Methods Services, limited accessibility to FP Services and Information as well as cultural and religious barriers. In Cameroon, UNFPA is focusing on training health personnel in FP, promotion of modern contraceptive use, especially female condom, in northern and east regions where the situation is the worst.