LGU heads to be made accountable for maternal deaths

FED up with nagging the national government to implement a nationwide policy on family planning, health experts are changing their tactic. They warn that from now on, they will hold barangay captains, mayors, and governors accountable for every maternal death in their area.

Ten to 12 women die everyday due to complications arising from pregnancy and childbirth. The most common is hemorrhage, induced abortion, hypertension, and infection. However, more than 90 percent of these cases are preventable.

Dr. Jaime Galvez Tan, a former health secretary and a trustee of The Forum for Family Planning and Development (The Forum) says maternal death is common among mothers who are among the poor and poorest.

“The orphaned newborn babies will most likely not survive their first year of life. Most of these mothers who die also have a large brood of children,” he says. The risk of dying for orphaned children below five years old is also very high. “This makes it a community tragedy,” he says.

Under the Millennium Development Goals, the government is committed to reduce maternal deaths by three quarters by the year 2015. But the Arroyo administration has taken a hands-off position on the issue, leaving it up to local government units to decide how to pursue family planning programs, if they do so at all. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has withdrawn its funding for contraceptives and many local government units have refused to pick up the tab for their constituents. Many simply abandoned long-standing family planning programs for other priorities.

“We are planning to have a report card on maternal health for local government officials,” says Galvez Tan. The report cards will be based on the Maternal Mortality Audit, which was introduced in some provinces five years ago. Under this system, a doctor, nurse or midwife reviews each maternal death to determine the cause, whether medical, technical, social or economic.

Galvez Tan says the report cards will be made public, in an effort to increase the pressure on local officials to respond to the family planning needs of their constituents.

Suneeta Mukherjee, country representative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) urged the media to cover the issue “like other tragedies.” She laments that while media headlines death tolls due to typhoons and floods, maternal deaths, which can go as high as 35 per day, receives very little attention.