Friday, November 30, 2007 Only 50% of mothers in Davao are attended to during labor
THE Department of Health (DOH)-Southern Mindanao has discouraged the use of the traditional methods used in giving birth even as it reported that only 50 percent of mothers in the region are attended to by skilled attendants during their maternal labor.
Nationwide, only 67 percent of mothers giving birth are attended to by skilled medical attendants.
In an interview with DOH-Southern Mindanao Director Dr. Paulyn Jean Rosell-Ubial, she said it is their goal to reduce the maternal mortality rate in the region by at least 50 percent by year 2015.
In the past two years, Southern Mindanao has recorded an annual average of at least a hundred maternal deaths out of 100,000 live births. The year 2005 had the highest number of maternal deaths with figures reaching 120 for that year alone.
Unicef chief for health and nutrition Dr. Marinus Gotink said that in developed countries, the average maternal deaths only range from 7 to 8 out of 100,000 live births.
Ubial said there are two options that the government can resort to reduce maternal mortality rate.
"One is developing a health facility that is capable of handling basic emergency obstetrics case or a maternity house near the hospitals in the city," Ubial said. (CPM)
