DAVAO CITY—In what could be one of the best arguments for the full implementation of the reproductive health (RH) law, health authorities said at least one woman died every week giving birth in Western Mindanao.
Dr. Joshua Brillantes, regional head of the Department of Health’s (DOH) local health support office, presented the number during a maternal-newborn child summit here on Wednesday.
Brillantes said half of the women who died giving birth in the region were teenagers.
He blamed poor maternal care for the deaths.
Regional health authorities, he said, expressed grave concern over another statistic on maternal and child care in the region: 86 infants die out of every 100 childbirths, much higher than the national figure.
He said the national average was 220 deaths per 100,000 deliveries.
Brillantes said the primary causes of deaths of women giving birth in the region were hemorrhage and eclampsia, or seizures during pregnancy.
He said that in Western Mindanao, the lack of access to health facilities, especially among indigents, was the main reason for the deaths.
Brilliantes said this was the reason behind the summit organized by the DOH.
“We aim to lower the figure significantly, if not totally eradicate the causes, of childbirth-related deaths,” he said.
He said the DOH was also trying to improve access to health facilities, especially among the poor, implementing programs that discourage home deliveries, upgrade medical facilities and promote enrollment in the program of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), among others.
The Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of the RH law, which Church leaders and politicians courting favors from the Church have been opposing vigorously.
At one point, Church leaders were said to have warned proponents of the RH law of excommunication should they continue to support the controversial law.
Church leaders are opposing the law for supposedly being in favor of abortion. Liza Jocson, Inquirer Mindanao