Among Us Women Workshops - Romania

PSI's approach to reducing abortion in Romania consists in informing female factory workers about their contraceptive options and encouraging responsible choices regarding their reproductive health. Workshops are conducted where there is a high concentration of female workers, usually in textile factories, in collaboration with private local doctors and factory management.

Held for women aged 17-40, the 30- to 60-minute-long interactive workshops are designed to facilitate dialogue. The workshops are scheduled either before or after work shifts or during lunch breaks. "The fact that many women are willing to come to work early, stay late or use their lunch break to hear what we have to say indicates that we are filling a need, that what we are providing is important," says Dr. Anca Purdel, one of the medical doctors implementing the programme for PSI/Romania. Most of the questions that arise concern oral contraceptive pills, as they have not been available for many years and misinformation abounds (e.g., there is a persistent myth that these pills "cause facial hair and cancer").

The workshop facilitators are all private medical doctors who have been trained by PSI on family planning technical and medical issues and group communication techniques. They stress that women have the right and responsibility to make informed decisions about their reproductive health. The doctors discuss all methods of family planning - including condoms, birth control pills, intrauterine devices (IUDs) and spermicides - in addition to the risks associated with having more than one partner and how to protect oneself from sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS.

At the end of the workshop, participants are given the "Women's Health Brochure", which provides detailed information on contraceptive methods and other reproductive health issues, a pamphlet on Coral 21 (PSI's oral contraceptive brand), PSI's Love Plus condoms, and prizes for responding correctly to questions. The facilitators also provide referrals to local doctors and clinics providing reproductive health services.

Women, Reproductive Health, Family Planning.

Each AUW interpersonal communication facilitator conducts an average of 20 workshops per month, with an average of 17 women in each workshop. Since the programme's inception, PSI has reached over 180,000 women in 80 factories. PSI claims that "In 2003, PSI/Romania's activities helped prevent almost 48,000 unintended pregnancies." In 2004, a quantitative survey was conducted in Bucharest: 226 women from 2 factories completing a self-administered questionnaire before the session and then 4 months after they completed the session, and a control group consisting of 258 women from a third factory completed an identical questionnaire. The study found that “AUW factory sessions have been successful in changing women’s knowledge and behavior regarding modern contraceptive methods." Click here to view a report, in PDF format, which includes a chart illustrating these results in more detail.

According to PSI, abortion continues to be the primary method of fertility control for most women in Romania. According to a 1999 reproductive health survey, Romanian women have an average of 2.2 abortions but only 1.3 children, and 2003 Ministry of Health statistics reveal that abortions still exceed live births.