Transcript
PAULINE FAKALATA: The two things that came out from the interviews is that the participants faced two barriers to contraceptive use. One was the cultural expectations and things - we always know that the typical expectation on a Tongan woman is to get married, have lots of children you know to look after us. It's like a form of insurance to look after us when we get older. Two, they contribute to the family and the wider family and the community and the church. And women talked a lot about that. Women felt under pressure because of these expectations. They needed to be seen as good women. They needed to be seen as contributing, to be well respected and contributing to the family. And there was hardly anybody that consider their health first. It was always about, the priority was always about the collective.
INDIRA STEWART: Did you find out anything about the attitudes behind contraception that were surprising?
PF: I asked for the reasons - one of the questions was, I was asking what were the reasons for not using contraception. The top 5 reasons was one, was women couldn't be bothered. And one of the things, you know was the words of mouth. What people talked about through church that 'oh I took the pill and it made my skin so bad. And those were stories that women have held on to because they didn't want to use contraception because there were side effects.
IS: What about attitudes with abortion? So your experience working in abortion clinics, you talked a lot about religious beliefs which can affect the way people perceive contraception. What about religious beliefs being tied into the experience of an abortion?
PF: Yeah, I think I've experienced that but I've seen both sides of the anti-abortion and of the parents and aunties supporting their daughters. The more we understand about abortion, the more we understand about women's health and women's freedom of choice and women's control over their bodies and over their fertilities, I think our attitudes can change.
IS: Do you think it might help for the Ministry of Education to maybe go and do some ground work in providing a little bit more education or access to education on reproductive health to some communities - some Pacific Island communities?
PF: I really do. I really think in general, it's great to be in New Zealand and I think from the perspective of reproductive health it is great for Tongan young women to grow up in New Zealand and have the opportunities to be exposed to information and good education here. I grew up in Tonga as a teenager - there was no sex education when I was in high school and because of our tapu's (taboos), faka'apa'apa (respect) between brothers and sisters, male and female cousins, you know if we talk about it in biology the male cousins get chucked out of the classroom for one hour while the session class is on. You know, the boys miss the whole class you know. And that's because of our faka'apa'apa and our tapu. And here in New Zealand, I mean the young Tongan kids have a huge opportunities here in New Zealand. It would be great to take advantage of that. I think it would be good to target and have some education programs, specifically targeting pacific young people. The pregnancy rates for young pacific, especially the 20-year-olds and below, it's really high which a fraction of us could observe that and say, great, it's a positive thing. And from a health professional perspective, we would say, you know we really need to get the message out there for young pacific women to use contraception.
