Filtered By: Lifestyle
Lifestyle

Maternal mortality in PHL declined during Aquino term – UN report


A study of worldwide trends on maternal mortality from 1990 to 2015 notes a sharp decline in maternal deaths in the Philippines during the Aquino administration.

According to the report—which combined estimates by the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the World Bank Group and the United Nations Population Division—the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) in the country went down from 129 deaths per 100,000 deliveries in 2010 to 114 in 2015.

The MMR is the combined number of cases of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births at any given time, usually within a year, from pregnancy-related causes.

This is a significant improvement compared to the previous Estrada and Arroyo administrations, which both saw a steady increase in MMR.

The study (.pdf) was carried out to assess country-level efforts in achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) to curb MMR.

Taken together over the period 1990 to 2015, the Philippines registered an over-all cumulative 25 percent increase in MMR every five years with an average annual percent change of 1.1.

However, the decline still fell short of the set MDG goal in 2015 for the Philippines, which was to reach an MMR of 52.

It was during the Aquino administration that the Republic Act No. 10354 or the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012 became law. It was the result of a gruelling and divisive policy legislation process which was ultimately determined as binding and constitutional by the Supreme Court.

MMR in other countries

Other countries assessed in the report as not making progress in achieving their MDG goals on MMR are Yemen, South Africa, Suriname, Swaziland, Paraguay, Mauritania, Namibia, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Panama, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Gabon, Gambia, Guyana, Haiti, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Cote d Ivoire, Congo, Algeria and Benin.

Countries considered to have achieved progress in curbing MMR are Timor-Leste, Rwanda, Maldives, Mongolia, Iran, Laos, Cabo Verde, Cambodia and Bhutan.

According to the report, MMR figures worldwide reached 300,000 in 2015. Of these cases, 302,000 are from developing regions and only 1,700 are from the developed regions.

On the country level, Nigeria and India are estimated to account for over one-third of all maternal deaths worldwide, with MMR indicator point-estimates at 58,000 maternal deaths (19%) and 45,000 maternal deaths (15%), respectively. Sierra Leone is estimated to have the highest MMR at 1,360. As of 2015, the two regions with highest MMR are sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania.

Poverty and gender inequality

The findings underscored the need for the accurate measurement of maternal mortality levels to address the message that hundreds of thousands of women are still dying due to complications of pregnancy and/or childbirth each year, with many of these deaths going unaccounted.

The findings also highlight the importance of economic support and a strong executive mandate to lower the incidence of MMR. Factors such as poverty and gender inequality were also pinpointed as high incidence factors.

In 2015, the World Health Organization reported that every day, about 830 women die due to complications of pregnancy and childbirth that could have been prevented. The primary causes of death are hemorrhage, hypertension, infections, and indirect causes, mostly due to interaction between pre-existing medical conditions and pregnancy.

The WHO also highlighted income gaps and urban-rural areas’ distance to health centers as primary concerns that must be addressed to lower MMR. Moreover, existing conditions are more precarious for women in developing countries, whose chances of dying from maternity-related causes are 33 times higher than women in developed countries.

More than 10 mothers every day

In the Philippines, more than 10 mothers die every day, leaving more than 30 children motherless every day, according to the UNFPA.

The Philippines also ranks among the highest incidence in teenage pregnancy in Southest Asia. There was a recorded 70-percent increase in teenage pregnancy from 1999 to 2009, accounting for 11% of 1.75 million live births.

The teen pregnancy boom is attributed to lack of sex education and misconceptions about reproductive health.

In 2013, population expert Dr. Corazon Raymundo underscored the need to prevent teenage pregnancy due to its adverse effects on the health of young women: the MMR among pregnant adolescents is dangerously high at two to four times higher than women over the age of 20.

The situation calls for an accelerated effort on the part of the Philippine government and various stakeholders to save the lives of mothers and pregnant women, including reproductive health (RH) education as well as the provision of basic RH services. The outgoing administration has set the country on track  towards bringing our MMR closer to the target set by the Millennium Development Goals. Clearly however, so much more needs to be done. — BM, GMA News

LOADING CONTENT