'Infanticipating': Expecting the unexpected

MANILA, Philippines - This booklet is what all pregnant women should have in their handbags,” Raul M. Quillamor, MD, president of the Perinatal Association of the Philippines and an obstetrician who has been in active practice for more than two decades, wrote in his foreword to Infanticipating: Your Ultimate Guide to Motherhood. Authored by Rome Kanapi of the Philippine Association for Childbirth Education, the handy booklet is designed to help women prepare adequately for pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, and postpartum care. Kanapi is neither a doctor nor a nurse nor a midwife but, as Dr. Quillamor points out, “she is in the best position to help,” since she is “first and foremost a mother.” She is also a childbirth expert and a teacher.

After 30 years of giving classes to pregnant women to prepare them for childbirth, “we felt it was high time to have a book like this,” Kanapi says. “Infanticipating covers all areas of a healthy pregnancy: from choosing the proper childbirth classes and maternity wear to the different vitamins you need to take and how to create a proper home checklist to prepare for your baby’s arrival. Infanticipating also stresses the important role of your husband in maintaining a healthy pregnancy as well as the essential food and vitamins you need to take to prevent sickness and disease that could harm your unborn baby.”

The booklet serves as your pregnancy journal and baby book as well, helping you keep track of your daily food intake and even providing a sample fetal movement chart. An important section of Infanticipating deals with the importance of pre-pregnancy and post-delivery vaccination, specifically against diseases such as German measles and chickenpox which, if contracted during pregnancy, put the unborn child at risk for a variety of problems such as mental retardation, heart problems, deafness, cataracts as well as eye abnormalities and atrophy or withering of the arms and legs.

“Preventive healthcare for babies should not begin at the moment they’re born but at the moment that parents plan to have a baby,” Dr. Quillamor stresses. “And with 38 percent of Filipinas who are of childbearing age at risk of diseases such as rubella, the importance of pre-pregnancy vaccination can’t be overemphasized.”

Here are a few tips:

• Pre-conceptual immunization of women is preferred to vaccination of pregnant women, in order to eliminate risk to the fetus.

• Avoid over-crowded areas where the risk of viral infection is high; if you are pregnant and think you’ve been exposed to a person with suspected measles, mumps, German measles or chickenpox, see your doctor right away.

• After giving birth, ask your doctor about the recommended postpartum vaccines for you and other household members who might be in close contact with your newborn. Bring your newborn to a pediatrician and ask about early and complete protection through vaccination.

Infanticipating, the first pregnancy guidebook written by Filipinas for Filipinas, is a joint effort of the Philippine Association for Childbirth Education (PACE) and Mommy Mundo, “the Philippines’ most extensive portal of mom and family-focused resources,” in partnership with GlaxoSmithKline. You can get your free copy of Infanticipating at your doctor’s clinic.

For “mompreneur” Janice Crisostomo-Villanueva of Mommy Mundo, it’s an advocacy. “We are happy with what we are doing and we want to share this with other moms,” she says.