A proposed law that would grant mandatory government support to parents of triplets, quadruplets and higher multiple births has been filed in the House of Representatives.
House Bill No. 4789, authored by Bayan Muna party-list Representatives Teddy Casiño and Neri Javier Colmenares, seeks to assist parents of multiple births who are not financially prepared to raise several children all at once.
If the bill is passed into law, support would be given by the government to cover:
• All prenatal, delivery and postnatal care services;
• Funeral expenses in case of death of any one or more of the multiple siblings or their mother;
• Extended paternity and maternity leaves for parents; and
• Health and nutrition and educational support.
According to the bill’s authors, mothers who give birth to multiple babies are often unsure of their capacity to sustain the family.
Such births entail higher expenses due to extended hospital confinement and more frequent hospital visits required during the prenatal, delivery and postnatal stages, including admittance of the multiple-birth babies to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).
The more babies born in the set, the lower the birth weight of each baby, which increases the need for admittance to NICUs, the bill said. Almost half of all multiple births are usually premature.
“More often than not, death becomes unavoidable for one or more of the babies and even the mothers, due to complications during pregnancy or at childbirth,” the bill said.
“This situation then becomes doubly devastating for the family–psychologically and financially,” it added. Cynthia D. Balana