Better obstetric, newborn care still a challenge: POPCOM

“It poses the challenge to improve our local health system for emergency obstetric and newborn care, which was definitely affected during the pandemic,” he said. (Pexels photo)

MANILA – The Commission on Population and Development (POPCOM) is convinced that more medical attention should be provided to mothers and their babies, especially in the latter’s first 1,000 days which are deemed to be the most critical part by health practitioners.

POPCOM Officer-In-Charge and Executive Director (OIC-ED) Lolito Tacardon expressed hope on Wednesday that the government can go back to providing adequate services for health concerns other than those that are related the coronavirus disease 2019, such as maternal, infant, and child health, now that the country is recovering from the pandemic.

This, after the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) released data that posted a notable mortality rate increase in the first six months of 2022 from 425 in the same period last year to 468.

Tacardon said this condition indicates an issue with accessing appropriate, quality, and timely services from healthcare facilities.

“It poses the challenge to improve our local health system for emergency obstetric and newborn care, which was definitely affected during the pandemic,” he said.

The POPCOM official also noted that although fatalities among under five-year-old Filipino children have drastically gone down from 103 in 1960 to 26 in 2020, there still remains a gap in enhancing the health conditions of mothers and young kids to further reduce child mortalities and improve their survival rate.

“This also calls for the full and intensified implementation of the Universal Health Care Law, as well as the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Law, which mandate the upholding of the well-being and overall health of Filipino moms and their young children,” he added.

According to the PSA data, the number of fatalities was classified under “other direct obstetric deaths” which the World Health Organization cited to be resulting from obstetric complications of the pregnant state (pregnancy, labor, and puerperium), and from interventions, omissions, incorrect treatment, or from a chain of events resulting from these.