PH far from hitting dev’t target, but RH law may help, say execs

As of 2011, the Philippines has registered 221 maternal deaths per 100,000 births, Rose Marcelino, Popcom deputy executive director, told a news briefing here in Baguio City. STOCK PHOTO

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines—The Philippines is far from meeting its 2015 Millennium Development Goal (MDG) on maternal health, but the government hopes the reproductive health law will help improve the numbers, officials of the Population Commission (Popcom) said here last week.

UN member states had agreed to cut world poverty incidence by half next year using an MDG checklist.

“We are too far behind our MDG target of 52 MMR (maternal mortality rate or the ratio of mothers who die in childbirth) by 2015,” Juan Antonio Perez III, Popcom executive director, said in a speech read for him at the fifth National Population, Health and Environment Conference.

Perez said many countries “will fail to meet the targets for life expectancy, infant and child mortality and maternal mortality,” despite better living standards, based on a UN population status report in April.

As of 2011, the Philippines has registered 221 maternal deaths per 100,000 births, Rose Marcelino, Popcom deputy executive director, told a news briefing here.

“We are still far from our MDG target of 52 maternal deaths per 100,000. Ideally we want zero deaths but the Department of Health and other agencies are doing their best to meet the target by 2015,” she said.

She said Republic Act No. 10354, the RH law, which has been declared constitutional by the Supreme Court, could help the country catch up.

“Most of the provisions of the reproductive health law address the right of women to access reproductive health services, which would help lessen maternal mortality,” she said.

The inability of women to secure reproductive health services, birthing facilities and even the help of health professionals are among the causes of maternal deaths in the country, Marcelino said.

But in the upland communities of the Cordillera, the Department of Health reported a decline in maternal deaths in 2011, with 19 per 100,000 compared to 22 per 100,000 in 2010. The deaths rose to 23, however, last year.

Dr. Virginia Narciso, DOH Cordillera family health cluster chief, said the maternal deaths were blamed on the upland terrain, poverty and misinformation about reproductive health.

She said the Cordillera may yet meet its regional MMR target, which is under 14 maternal deaths a year.

Even the health of Cordillera children has improved. The National Nutrition Council said the Cordillera had “the lowest undernutrition rate among all regions in the country,” with 11.9 prevalence rate based on a 2011 survey conducted by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute.