Protect our mothers

Too many mothers die during pregnancy and childbirth – and for reasons that are totally preventable. This is the tale of an estimated 4,500 women who die yearly, a rate that is unacceptable in today’s standard of health care and delivery.

As a result, the country is in danger of not meeting its commitment to the United Nation-led Millennium Development Goals come 2015, a concord signed in 2001 with other UN members and at least 23 other international organizations.

The goal is to bring down maternity mortality to 52 per 100,000 births; 2006 stats are at 162, from 209 in 1990. This is going to be a long climb given the fact that there has been no focused and effective program dedicated to this.

Underlying reason for unacceptable death rate

There is a multitude of reasons there is a high rate of mortality happening in the Philippines, with bleeding and infection as the leading diagnosis of deaths during and immediately after birthing, and hypertension and pre-eclampsia as the killers during pregnancy.

Death by bleeding is often a result of anemia during pregnancy. For healthy women, losing more than a liter of blood during childbirth is acceptable, but to an anemic patient, even less than a liter of blood lost could be fatal.

Too often, it is the face of poverty and the lack of education that is the underlying reason for all these deaths. Many pregnant women do not have the resources or the time to do prenatal check-ups, or are not aware of the dire consequences of not availing of these regular consultations.

Even if there are enough barangay-based public clinics, especially in the urban areas, women who not been going to the health centers for prenatal consultation usually end up at pregnancy risks. When it is time for them to give birth, they are then referred to the bigger hospitals like Fabella, but sometimes already too late.

Too few, too far

For women in the rural areas, however, the lack of qualified doctors or health personnel and the limited number of health centers, often situated many kilometers away from the smaller barrios, is a big reason why childbirth becomes fatal.

There have been too many cases of anemic pregnant mothers who die at the hands of quack doctors or unqualified health personnel. It is also in the rural areas where sepsis is at its highest, where new mothers succumb to infection because of unsanitary and unsterile conditions.

On the other hand, the rise in hypertensive pregnant mothers is seen as a result of poor diet – junk food, not enough proper nourishment – not only during the nine months of pregnancy, but also even before. A common ailment, urinary tract infections, leads to sepsis that may affect even the newborn.

There is also the prevalence of unsafe abortions, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and hepatitis that contribute to the dismal statistics. Here, the low observance of safe sex or the use of contraceptives is regarded as a major reason.

Languishing bill

The Philippines has one of the lowest indicators of contraceptive use, thanks largely to the Roman Catholic Church and affiliated non-government agencies that have mounted protests that have effectively coerced a vulnerable political leadership into inaction.

The fact that several versions of the reproductive health bill have already been filed in the lower house and has not seen any substantial measure of success is proof of the effective lobby by those against the passage of the proposed law.

Women who are physically not ready to bear a child, much less give birth to one, should have strong advice to avoid getting pregnant. This means not just having a choice of using natural methods of contraception, but also such measures as the use of condoms or even pills or injectibles.

This also means that public health clinics must, without fear of reprisal or reprimand, openly subscribe and advocate this choice for a mother at risk. Only when this happens will we see maternal mortality figures substantially lowered.

P-Noy’s test

Indeed, President Noynoy’s political will would have a big hand in shaping whether the country will be able to bring down its number of maternal deaths. More than the objective of meeting the MDG commitments, the lives of pregnant mothers matter more.

Lest we forget, the RH bill also embraces the need to manage our growing population, which is seen as a challenge to improving the nation’s economic growth as well as helping solve major national problems such as inadequate education, poverty and ignorance.

Of course, the RH bill is not a be-all and end-all to the country’s woes. There are many things that need to be done in parallel, such as creating an environment for new investments, fiscal responsibility, and the drive against corruption.

All these will take years before they bear fruit. But they have to be done immediately if better change is to follow. Once again, I say: Let the debates on the RH bill take their full course.

P-Noy, or at least according to his authorized spokespersons at Malacañang, will not be changing his stand of supporting couples who would want to practice birth control by using other means other than the natural way. For the good of the country, we fervently hope the President will remain true to his statement.

P-Noy owes it to the millions of mothers and mothers-to-be who chose him to be the father of our country.

Collegiate basketball update

Starting next week and for the whole month of October and first two weeks of Nov. 20 provincial champions will vie for the four regional championships of the Champions League (PCCL) 2010 Philippine Collegiate Championship games. The four regional champions will advance to the zonal qualifying games to be held in Manila and Cebu City on November. At stake at the zonal qualifying games are six seats in the “Sweet 16” Finals of the Champions League.

The South Luzon-Bicol regionals will kick off the regional games next week at Sorsogon City with Ateneo de Naga Golden Knights, Naga Champion, M.S.Enverga U Wildcats, Quezon champion, Amanda Cope College, Tabak champion, and the eventual champions of the collegiate championship games ongoing at Legaspi and Sorsogon.

The North-Central Luzon regionals will be held at Vigan City starting second week of October involving University of Northern Philippines, champion of Vigan, and the champions of the ongoing collegiate leagues at Baguio, Pangasinan and Pampanga.

The Visayas Islands (except Cebu) regional games will be held at Iloilo City on the first week of November with champion teams from Ioilo, Bacolod, Dumaguete, Bohol, Tacloban and Ormoc participating.

Also on the first week of November, the Mindanao regional championship will be held at Cagayan de Oro City with champion teams from Cagayan de Oro, Davao City, Gen San City and Zamboanga competing.

On its eighth edition, the Champions League (PCCL) Philippine Collegiate Championship games are sponsored by PLDT, SMART, Molten Balls and ABS-CBN, the official covering television network.

Visit www.CollegiateChampionsLeague.net for more details about the 2010 Philippine Collegiate Championship games.

Should you wish to share any insights, write me at Link Edge, 25th Floor, 139 Corporate Center, Valero Street, Salcedo Village, 1227 Makati City. Or e-mail me at [email protected]. For a compilation of previous articles, visit www.BizlinksPhilippines.net.