Obscene death rattles

“Statistics are people with the tears wiped from their eyes.” The 2011 Family Health Survey, for example, documents that 221 mostly faceless mothers now die in every 100,000 live births.

That figure means nothing in isolation. But set it in context. Then a stark contrast emerges: Today, more Filipinas today die at childbirth than in the early 1990s.

Then and now, most of those deaths were preventable. More infants are orphaned today than in 2006. “Do you hear the children crying, /O my brother? Ere sorrows come with the years,” Elizabeth Barret Browning asked.

In a recent Inquirer op-ed article “A Listening Church,” sociologist Mary Racelis provides a useful matrix. There has been a tragic U-Turn in death rates for mothers, she pointed out.

Less-than-adequate programs whittled down maternal deaths, ever so slowly, from 209 in 1990 to 162 deaths in 2006. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo then was halfway into her protracted stay in Malacanang. We were supposed to speed up this sluggish curbing of deaths.

The exact opposite happened instead. More mothers die today. The maternal mortality ratio surged to 221 per 100,000 live births, Racelis notes. That exceeds the 209 deaths tracked in 1990.

Our chances of meeting Millennium Development Goal No 5 – to slash maternal deaths to 52 in three years – are zero. “Goal 5 is least likely to be achieved by 2015,” the National Economic and Development Authority warned. That 94 other countries are also lagging is consuelo de bobo.

We lag behind Asian countries in giving mothers a better-than-even chance for fuller lives. Malaysia, for example, pruned maternal death rates to 31 and China to 38. Sri Lanka and Honduras led the way in slashing maternal mortality.” Nicolas Kristoff of the New York Times reports

These countries show that what is considered premature deaths is not inevitable for our mothers. They constitute one of the country’s most vital resources. “The biggest themes of life are put into the best focus when held up against the very sharp light of mortality.” Then why hasn’t this unstaunched bloodletting triggered alarm bells?

Dry antiseptic statistics induce widespread MEGO or “Mine Eyes Glaze Over.” Media drolls over trivia like “the grandiose birthday celebration of former first lady Imelda Marcos” to pork barrel squabbles. Were we in media remiss in explaining the significance of premature graves for mothers?

The National Statistical Office anchored it’s latest survey of 53,000 women of reproductive age over a seven year period, explains NSO director Socorro Abejo. Sure, there were flaws like overlapping reference periods. Nonetheless, the bottom line didn’t budge “a rough estimate of 200 maternal mortality rate.”

Maternal burial plots form sensitive gauge of a country’s health structures. Health Secretary Enrique Ona was candid: “If it is high, your system is not good enough,” he said. “No change in statistical data means it did not get worse for pregnant women. But it did not get any better either.”

Stagnation in maternal death rates for mothers is obscene There is a critical need for legislation to address structural barriers, Ona adds. These include the overhaul of midwifery and other health professional laws as well as consolidating health systems for local governments. For universal health care, There is a need to pass the Reproductive Health bill for universal health care,

Local governments are where the action is. LGUs can reach where most victims cluster – remote upland barangays, coastal fishing villages or city slums. Often ill-fed school dropouts, these women lack access to what is, at best, patchy health services.

“Giving midwives further training in life-saving skills could prevent up to 80 percent of maternal deaths.” These mothers have “no escape routes,” i.e. options that give them “quality information that would enable them to avoid unwanted pregnancies or space pregnancies, and plan families.”

Look a little closer. Only six out of 10 Filipino mothers deliver babies with properly trained birth attendants. Almost 99 percent of births in Thailand, in contrast, have medical personnel present. Out of every 100 Filipino doctors, 68 practice abroad. Over 164,000 nurses left for “those far-away places-with-strange-sounding names over the past four decades.” “A health care brain drain is strangling (public) hospitals.

Underground abortionists account for 12 percent of maternal deaths. The UP Population Institute estimates that 560,000 abortions are induced yearly. Only 90,000 mothers get post-abortion care. About half of 3.4 million pregnancies in 2008 were unintended.

These women should be the primary concern of LGUs. The fact is that far too many LGUs don’t bother with voiceless endangered mothers. After winning a two-year election protest in a Cebu town, the new officials promptly released back wages for themselves – shameless.

Secertary Jesse Robredo’s DILG memo circular 2010-138 now bounces claims for honoraria, lakbay aral junkets, fiestas to cash gifts. The European Union this month signed a check for P440 million to buff up finance management in :LGUs. The project enhances the capacity of local governments to generate revenue and allocate and spend public funds more effectively, EU Ambassador Guy Ledoux explained.

It is harsh to say we’ve turned a deaf ear to the death rattle in the throats of thousands of young mothers. But it’s true.