Making Pregnancy Safer

Making Pregnancy Safer

Making Pregnancy Safer

by Trevor Phoenix Lomotos -
Number of replies: 0

Answer the following and post your answers here. Cite references of your answers as much as possible.

  1. In response to Making Pregnancy Safer, what are the current programs in the country to address maternal mortality and morbidity? Cite at least 1.

 

National Safe Motherhood Program by the Department of Health

  • Focuses on health and welfare of women throughout their pregnancy

  • Includes adolescent pregnant and meeting unmet needs for family planning contraceptives 

  • Program Mission: “Our Mission is for Filipino women to have full access to health services towards making their pregnancy and childbirth safer.”

  • Program Vision: “In support of the Ambisyon Natin 2040, the National Safe Motherhood Program envisions a healthy Filipino family where the mother is healthy as the other members of her family.”

  • Services:

    • PhilHealth Benefit Package

      • Maternity Care Benefit Package

      • Newborn Care Benefit Package

    • Trainings

      • Basic Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care for Doctors and Nurses

      • Basic Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care for Midwives

      • Maternal Death Surveillance and Response

    • Implementation Support Materials

      • Pregnancy, Childbirth, Postpartum and Newborn Care (PCPNC) Manual

      • BEmONC Module for Midwives

      • Maternal Death Reporting and Review System: A Guide to LGU Users

 

Expanded Program on Immunization

  • Established in 1976 to ensure infants/children and mothers have access to routinely recommended infant/childhood vaccines

  • Goals:

    • 1.   To immunize all infants/children against the most common vaccine-preventable diseases.

    • 2.   To sustain the polio-free status of the Philippines.

    • 3.   To eliminate measles infection.

    • 4.   To eliminate maternal and neonatal tetanus

    • 5.   To control diphtheria, pertussis, hepatitis b and German measles.

    • 6.   To prevent extra pulmonary tuberculosis among children. 

  • Strategies:

    • Conduct of Routine Immunization for Infants/Children/Women through the Reaching Every Barangay (REB) strategy

    • Supplemental Immunization Activity (SIA)

    • Strengthening Vaccine-Preventable Diseases Surveillance

 

  1. What can you suggest in order to decrease our maternal mortality and morbidity in the country? Give at least 3 suggestions.

  • Make health education, especially in terms of maternal health more accessible. By ensuring that information is mass-oriented (made by the masses, for the masses, to be understood by the masses, we will be able to reach the deep caveats of the community that have no access to all the facts and figures of healthcare. 

  • Empower healthcare staff through training. Addressing the employees of healthcare is important to promote maternal health availability, accessibility and quality. A service that trains its professionals to be timely, considerate and resourceful in all matters will be more effective in treating women and families. Proper attitude and skills come a long way to ensure the competencies of clinics and hospitals as to promote the well-being of mother and baby. 

  • Campaign and elect better qualified leaders, representatives that will forward the healthcare system. Recognizing the politics that transpires in health service delivery is key to demanding the systemic change that we want. By making sure that there will be better policies, better budget allocation, better appreciation to the healthcare field, we are able to get to the root of the problem. 

 

References: 

DOH (n.d.) National Safe Motherhood Program Retrieved from https://doh.gov.ph/national-safe-motherhood-program

DOH (n.d.) Expanded Program on Immunization. Retrieved from https://doh.gov.ph/expanded-program-on-immunization