Our Mothers Aren't Quite Okay

The Unicef released this month its "Progress for Children, A Report Card on Maternal Mortality," and there's a lot to rejoice about.

Maternal mortality rates (MMR) are going down, even in East Asia and the Pacific, where the Philippines belong.

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An estimated 45,000 women died due to complications of pregnancy and childbirth in this region in 2005, down from 80,000 in 1990.

"Data suggest that the maternal mortality ratio has been reduced by 30 percent, to its current estimated level of 150 deaths per 100,000 live births. By current estimates, East Asia/Pacific has made faster progress on reducing its MMR than any other region, but improvements must still accelerate if the MDG target is to be achieved," the report said.

There are telling signs, however, that the Philippines will have a lot of accelerating to do.

In one of the indicators featured, that recognized the fact that women in wealthiest households are more likely to have a skilled attendant at delivery, it showed that in terms of percentage of births attended by health personnel between 2000-2006, 92 percent of the richest gave birth with the presence of these attendants. However, only 25 percent of women from the poorest households had that skilled attendant on hand.

The numbers look worse in comparison with other East Asian countries.

One hundred percent of women from the richest 20 percent households gave birth attended by health personnel, compared to 97 percent of the poorest 20 percent in Mongolia. Thailand is also up there with 100 percent of the richest and 93 percent of the poorest, followed by Vietnam with 99 percent of the riches and 58 percent of the poorest. Clearly, Vietnam has made more significant strides in maternal health.

While the Philippines can only claim better state against Cambodian with 90 percent of the richest and 21 percent of the poorest, Timor leads with 48 percent of the riches and 7 percent of the poorest, and Lao People's Democratic Republic has 24 percent of the richest 20 percent and 7 percent of the poorest 20 percent giving birth with the help of skilled attendants. The disparity between the richest and the poorest in terms of access is devastating.

The Philippines too is listed among high-fertility countries and though it has a starting data of 3.8 percent total fertility rate in 1996, it had the smallest decline by 2006 with just 5 percentage points to 3.3 percent.

The other high-fertility countries that are in the list bear names we only hear about during Miss Universe pageants.

Samoa had a 4.7 percent fertility rate in 1996 that went down to 4.1 by 2006; Papua New Guinea, from 4.7 percent to 4.0 percent; Vanuatu from 4.7 percent to 3.9; Cambodia, 4.8 percent to 3.3 percent; Solomon Islands, 5.1 percent to 4.0 percent, and Lao PDR from 5.1 to 3.3.

Indeed, there's a lot to be done, especially because maternal health is a major measure of development and poverty. The way things are going; we're up there with the poor nations even though our country has had a longer history of progress and development.

Access to maternal care is still denied to a substantial number of our population, and yet our birth rate continues to grow much faster than a lot of poor countries.

If this is not seen as a sign of more bad things to come, then government must have not yet realized that all babies come from mothers and that poor mothers beget poor babies, most of the time more than quintuple-fold faster than rich mothers begetting rich babies.


Source: The SunStar (Phillipines), September 22, 2008

POPULATION BILL MOVES TO HOUSE PLENARY DEBATE

The battle over the controversial population control bill has officially shifted to the plenary.

Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, principal author of the Reproductive Health, Responsible Parenthood and Population Development Act of 2008, yesterday announced that the measure had been endorsed for plenary debates by the committee on rules.

This means that members of the House of Representatives, whether they are for or against House Bill 5043, will have to come out in the open and defend their positions.

Lagman stressed that the measure was not about condoms and pills and neither is it about religion... It is primarily about health and rights.

He said the committee on rules endorsement was a victory for reproductive health advocates, who have been waiting for the enactment of this bill for almost a decade.

Lagman said 96 lawmakers signed as coauthors of the bill as of yesterday and expects four more signatories today.

The Roman Catholic hierarchy has opposed the measure, mainly because it is against idea of the state intruding into the divine gift of procreation by promoting the use of artificial contraceptives.

The Churchs position is the backbone of the campaign at the lower house of the Pro-Life Caucus, a group of congressmen opposed to Lagmans bill.

Paranaque Rep. Eduardo Zialcita, a leading voice of the group, yesterday sought clarification from Health Secretary Francisco Duque on the governments family planning method of choice.

Duque, who was at the House to defend his departments budget, assured Zialcita that government policy was centered on natural family planning, the only method acceptable to the teachings of the Church.

In a statement, the Pro-Life Caucus said the proponents and promoters of reproductive health were silent on the adverse effects of contraceptives.

Couples should be informed not only of the alleged benefits but also of the ill side effects of these drugs and devices to the mother and to the unborn babies, it said.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer, Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Author: Christian V. Esguerra