PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Palawan -- The lack of hospital facilities and the absence of obstetricians in remote areas in Palawan to handle childbirth and maternal health care top the reasons for the high maternal mortality rate (MMR) among the tribes in Palawan.
They also form part of the underlying basis on why Palawan remains to be the province in the Mimaropa region with an MMR rate of 139 percent, which is far more than the national government’s rate of about 80 percent.
Jenevil Tombaga, manager of the Maternal Health Care of the Provincial Health Office (PHO), said Thursday at the Philippine Information Agency (PIA)-hosted Kapihan.
“We have areas that have no doctors. We have areas that have hospitals, but these, like in Quezon town, are medicare hospitals that are only primary level. They cannot handle high-risk pregnancy cases,” she said.
High-risk pregnancies, especially involving teenagers or young indigenous peoples (IPs) and pregnant women 40 years old and above, should already be referred to health care institutions that can provide treatment with specialized medical and nursing staff and facilities.
“One problem is if they go to the hospital, and they are teenagers in primi, they should be in higher level hospitals with obstetricians and complete facilities. We have to admit that we have municipal hospitals that are not equipped with the proper facilities to handle childbirth and maternity care,” said Tombaga.
Primi is short for “primigravida” or when a woman is pregnant for the first time or has been pregnant once.
Based on the MMR review of the PHO, maternal deaths since 2014 in Palawan had not gone down below 20.
“We only started our thorough review of the MMR in 2015. Before this, there were maternal deaths recorded in 2014, but they were only provided without validation. After 2015, we can say that our review has already been 95 percent accurate,” she said.
In 2014, the maternal death record of Palawan was 30, followed in 2015 by 24, 27 in 2016, and 21 in 2017.
During the first quarter of this year, the PHO has already recorded eight maternal deaths in the province.
"I am already beginning to worry because just this first quarter, we've already recorded eight maternal deaths. There are still three quarters, and I am already worrying if the cases would even go up than last year's," added Tombaga.
Majority of those who died during these years were members of tribal communities, whose cultural beliefs also encumber the implementation of provincial government programs on the prevention of more maternal deaths, she said.
“Sometimes, they hide because they feel they are being harassed when being sent to hospitals or the rural health units for pre-natal. Because they are IPs, they can complain about you if they think you’re distressing them,” she added.
Aside from post-partum hemorrhage or excessive bleeding, other medical causes of maternal deaths in Palawan are uterine atony when the uterus fails to contract after the delivery of the baby; anemia; and placental retention or when the placenta is not expelled. (PNA)
