- In response to Making Pregnancy Safer, what are the current programs in the country to address maternal mortality and morbidity? Cite at least 1.
The Department of Health program on Safe Motherhood guided by the Administrative Order No. 2008-0029 aims to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality through a Fourmula One for Health approach for the local implementation of an integrated Maternal, Neonatal, and Child Health and Nutrition strategy.
The four aims of this program which are (1) to make every pregnancy wanted, planned, and supported, (2) to make every pregnancy adequately managed through its course; (3) to make sure every delivery is facility-based and managed by skilled birth attendants; and (4) to make every mother-and-newborn pair secures proper post-partum and postnatal care with smooth transitions to the women’s health care package for the mother and child survival package for the newborn are made sure to achieve and made priority to effectively reduce maternal and neonatal mortality until the year 2030. (Department of Health website, 2012)
- What can you suggest in order to decrease our maternal mortality and morbidity in the country? Give at least 3 suggestions.
As unsafe abortion continues to be one of the leading causes of maternal mortality, there is only one option to eradicate this unsafe practice; legalize abortion. Underground clinics, concocted remedies and ‘illegal medications’ continue to be the only option for unwanted, unplanned and unsupported pregnancy. Although without the guarantee that their lives are safe after such procedures, these mothers take a huge risk to save themselves from shame and responsibility.
Legalizing abortion still seems ideal to be an option for women with unwanted pregnancy, and still is a nauseatingly abominable choice, what we can do for now is to make family planning services more accessible and reachable to all individuals under the reproductive ages. Family planning services are assumed to be meant for women of legal ages and above, however, it is our reality that majority of men and women younger than those years practice unsafe sex. The Philippines continues to have one of the highest rates of adolescent fertility in Asia (Regala, 2020).
Make them reachable by increasing the number of facilities and clinics, place them in easy-to-reach areas such as malls and schools, and utilize the online platforms to reach a wider population target. Sociologically, for the RH law to be a more successful mandate, we must remove all stigma to all people who wish to avail these services. The connotation of women availing these services do not exactly appeal to the masses, hence they resort to experimenting, and watching adult films to somehow to get an idea. Sex education and use of contraceptives should be a common knowledge as early as high school and should be openly discussed in homes, schools and other institutions.
References:
Department of Health website. (2012). Doh.gov.ph. https://doh.gov.ph/health-programs/safe-motherhood-program/objectives
Regala, A. (2020, August 15). Significant rise in maternal deaths and unintended pregnancies feared because of COVID-19, UNFPA and UPPI study shows. UNFPA Philippines. https://philippines.unfpa.org/en/news/significant-rise-maternal-deaths-and-unintended-pregnancies-feared-because-covid-19-unfpa-and