 |
| Photo credit: http://www.stylespygirl.com |
By Jesther Rowen Bautista On 25 Nov, 2010
Original Link: http://lormahighlights.com/2010/11/reproductivehealthbill/
Attending to mothers in the labor room is a common role for the graduating student-nurse. While waiting inside the room, I often ask my clients whether it is their first time to have a baby or not.
Often, patients in the delivery room are multi-parous(has delivered more than one child). Jokingly, I ask them why they want more children. I get various answers in return, some of them attuned to boredom, ‘can’t get enough’, accidents in bed and to some ‘the more the merrier’.
Go Forth and Multiply
Despite the continuous growth of the country’s population, the number of jobs available for countless hopeful graduates is not increasing. It’s a stark contrast to the sub par services being offered by public hospitals and frankly they are not improving.
Many couples especially among the poor have more children than they can really sustain. The primary reason of having a lot of children is the mentality that more children mean more opportunities to get rich. With this thinking, parents of large families view their children as mere investments.
Parents hope that their children will someday elevate their economic status. Although they cannot keep up with the costs of raising a child, many hold on to dear Aling Beth’s sarisari store for survival. In the end, the health of their children suffer. They grow malnourished, emaciated and stunted in height. They grow up not knowing the difference between their A’s B’s and C’s. They are either uneducated, undereducated, poorly educated or are elementary or high school drop outs with no hope of ever getting a future at all.
And in the streets of San Fernando City, many Badjao children roam and beg for food and money. They may come in groups or you can see them “working” alone.
Most of the time, they walk behind you, patiently waiting for the perfect moment when they can swiftly snatch your food out of your very sight. They will then run away from you very quickly. And as you turn left to an alley, you will see them ravenously eating what used to be “your” food. I know this for a fact because my friend was once a victim of three siomai snatching rascals in Midtown Restaurant.
These children beg for spare changes. Most of them are even unapologetic of their very existence to annoy you for those few coins. Unfortunately for passers-by, most of these children beg rudely. If they cannot be given anything, they utter swears and spit at your shirt, or even both.
Their lack of access to education is also a factor why the country is experiencing overpopulation. Undereducated couples are hardly aware of the consequences of multiple pregnancies. Most likely, they are also not aware of the ways to reduce the number of pregnancies.
Because they produce children almost every year, they do not realize the risks that the mother faces in every pregnancy and the days following the delivery. Soon, at the nth pregnancy, the mother will experience heavy bleeding and other complications. And when not attended properly, she will soon die.
Mothers’ Health First
An old Filipino proverb says, “Ang nanay na nanganganak, nakabaon ang isang paa sa hukay.”(A woman giving birth has her one foot in the grave.) This illustrates the risks mothers must face in order to bring another human to the world.
The Department of Health emphasizes that “No woman should die giving life”. Pregnancy associated deaths had been a problem of the government for the past years. Because of their economic status and lack of access to immediate and adequate healthcare attention, many mothers had died because of complications during delivery.
Meanwhile, according to the report of United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 200 Filipino women die in every 100,000 live births. And roughly 11 women die every day. In order to prevent complications such as excessive bleeding and infection, the government recently imposed that mothers should not give birth outside a healthcare facility. In that way, proper medical attention will be given.
But was this move adequate to respond to the needs of mothers giving birth? Proponents of the Reproductive Health Bill say no.
The Reproductive Health Bill
Due to the threats to the health of mothers during pregnancy and delivery, the Reproductive Health Bill was recently revived in the Upper and Lower Houses.
It is a legislative bill aiming to guarantee universal access to reproductive health care services, supplies and information in the country. Some of the areas that the bill covers are midwives of skilled attendance, emergency obstetric care, access to family planning, maternal death review, and family planning supplies as essential medicines—all aiming to improve the reproductive health status of mothers.
The debate whether to implement the bill or not has been a tradition between the government and the leaders of the Catholic Church. While the government pushes the bill in order to help reduce the population and protect the health of mothers and children among other purposes, the latter blatantly oppose the bill, calling it anti-life because they believe it legalizes abortion.
Though both institutions present their own arguments, there is still no clear-cut decision whether the bill will be enacted into a law or not up to this time.
A Wake up Call
Since the population continues to grow and the bill remains to be heavily opposed, the government is left with the decision to strengthen the concepts of Family Planning for the mean time. Additionally, more studies and researches must still be done to provide more scientifically guided information as bases for clinical practice.
Because many mothers and couples have a lack of access to health care knowledge, the government must continue and extend their efforts to disseminate information. Campaigns for a smaller family size must be promoted.
In San Fernando City, institutions like the City Health Office and the rural health units conduct health teaching programs to families regarding their sexual health and how they can maintain it. DOH programs are implemented, and health consultation is encouraged. Although there is free consultation, and even more free medicines and free birth delivery charges, the importance of family planning still hasn’t sinked in well in the minds of many couples.
Parents should be reminded that there is nothing wrong with having a lot of children. Philippines exercises democracy, and everyone has the freedom to make his own choice. In this case, that choice certainly has a limit.
No comments:
Post a Comment