By Pamela Mariz Geminiano/PNA
BAGUIO CITY — The Department of Health (DOH) in the Cordillera region is intensifying the implementation of safe motherhood programs for poor mothers to give them more access to maternal and newborn health services.
“As of the moment, we are pushing for birthing facilities that will be accredited by PhilHealth, which will be a great help for our mothers, not only financially but also for the safe delivery for their newborns,” DOH medical officer, Dr. Virginia Narciso, told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) in an interview on the sidelines of the National Demographic and Health Survey 2017 regional data dissemination forum, on Friday.
Narciso said having more birthing facilities that are closer to the community would enable mothers to safely give birth in health facilities, rather than at home.
“If this becomes successful, of course it seems like it’s almost free. That would help the mothers a lot, especially nowadays, a lot of pregnant women are resorting to giving birth at the comforts of their home,” she said.
Based on the National Demographic and Health Survey result for 2017, a total of 77.2 percent of mothers opt to deliver in public health facilities, allowing them and their babies to receive appropriate medical attention.
The same survey result also shows that the infant mortality rate in the Cordillera is 8 percent, lower than the 21 percent national average, while the mortality rate of children five years old and under in the Cordillera is 11 percent compared to the national average of 27 percent.
The survey also shows that there were 1,483 registered maternal deaths in the country in 2016. Among the regions that recorded a high incidence of maternal deaths are Calabarzon with 213; Central Visayas, 201; National Capital Region, 159; and Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), 11.
Five new birthing centers in Baguio
Five district health centers in Baguio City are set to be upgraded to birthing stations to attend to the needs of pregnant women from the villages.
Dr. Maria Alice Torres, the city’s maternal and neonatal child health and nutrition coordinator, said these are the health centers in the villages of Atok Trail, Atab, Scout Barrio, Pinsao, and Irisan.
Torres said the upgrade of the five health centers aims to ease the birthing load of the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center (BGHMC), the only tertiary government hospital in the city.
The five birthing stations would be equipped with appropriate personnel and tools to facilitate the normal delivery of pregnant women.
The doctor said the birthing stations would be more accessible to women from the villages because of proximity to their homes.
The City Local Civil Registry Office recorded 9,867 births in the city in 2017 and registered 4,192 newborns in the first five months of 2018 alone.
Torres said the CHSO plans to upgrade two more district health centers into birthing stations, on top of the upcoming five to decongest the BGHMC.
She said four maternal deaths had been recorded in Baguio in 2017, although two of them were not residents of the city. For 2018, a lone case of maternal death was recorded in June.
Earlier, the DOH embarked on the establishment of birthing stations in urban and rural areas in the country to facilitate the health-based assistance to birthing mothers. This would allow mothers and the babies to immediately receive the required care, as well as the newborn screening.
The CHSO manages 16 district health centers in various parts of Baguio to cater to the primary and basic health needs of the residents of the city’s 128 barangays.
It said that the birthing stations would continue to serve as facilities that promote good nutrition and the government’s health programs among the locals, primarily the rearing of children during their first 1,000 days.
Reaching Every Purok (REP) program
Narciso said that the Reaching Every Purok (REP) strategy was introduced in 2013 as the next step after the Reaching Every Barangay (REB) strategy. The strategy responds to continued significant immunity gaps among disadvantaged puroks, blocks or sitios in a barangay.
“The REP Strategy puts the focus on the barangay at the purok, block and sitio level to reduce the immunity gap in high risk puroks (sub villages),” she said.
The strategy includes door-to-door monitoring of vaccination status, which is designed for densely- or highly-populated areas, like urban barangays, she explained.
She added that aside from ensuring the safety of mothers, the DOH also has a program to reduce the probability of infancy deaths due to lack of immunization.
The health facilities established in villages will also extend services to provide the services to babies and children.
“This is important, especially to the grassroots level, since a lot of mothers do not have enough money to avail of complete services of health facilities,” Narciso said. “We are appealing to all mothers to please take advantage of the free immunization program.”
In terms of massive information dissemination, she said they are partnering with the different line agencies and information offices to inform the public about government programs to make them healthy.
