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 - This program aims to provide Filipino women access to quality healthcare for a safer pregnancy and delivery and aims to promote the health and well-being of mothers of a Filipino family. It does this by focusing on the health and welfare of women throughout their pregnancy. It also includes adolescent pregnancy and meeting the unmet needs for family planning contraceptives (DOH,2018).
What can you suggest in order to decrease our maternal mortality and morbidity in the country? Give at least 3 suggestions.
- Proper compensation for public health care workers - By providing proper compensation to public health care workers, they wouldn’t feel the need to find jobs outside the country to support their families. Ensuring proper compensation guarantees that the provided quality of health care is not comprised as there are enough public health workers to provide maternal and child care.
- Comprehensive reproductive health education in schools and communities - According to PSA (2008), one in three births (36 percent) in the Philippines is either unwanted (16 percent) or mistimed (20 percent). Moreover, with the current rates of teenage pregnancy, it is evident that the community needs comprehensive education which includes education for responsible and healthy sexuality, safe and appropriate contraception, and services for sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy, delivery, and abortion. By providing this, individuals would make more informed-decision regarding their reproductive health, hopefully, reducing unwanted pregnancies, and subsequently reducing maternal mortality and morbidity in the country
- Decriminalization of abortion - Unsafe abortion is one of the leading causes of maternal mortality. By decriminilizing abortion and providing access to safe abortion, this would prevent pregnant individuals to resort to unsafe methods to end their unintended pregnancies, thus, decreasing the maternal mortality and morbidity in the country
References:
Department of Health. (2018, October 17). National Safe Motherhood Program: Department of Health Website. National Safe Motherhood Program | Department of Health website. Retrieved June 22, 2022, from https://doh.gov.ph/national-safe-motherhood-program
Philippine Statistics Authority. (2008). One in three births in the Philippines is unplanned. Philippine Statistics Authority. Retrieved June 22, 2022, from https://psa.gov.ph/article/one-three-births-philippines-unplanned