MAHINOG, Camiguin – The Department of Health (DOH) in Northern Mindanao Region will engage the women, children, senior citizens, adolescents and the local government units (LGUs) in the province, particularly those from this town to a sustainable health program during the Safe Motherhood Congress today, October 23.
The program which is in line with DOH’s “Kalusugan Pangkalahatan (KP)” will bring the awareness to the communities the importance of health care among women, especially those who are pregnant, to the children, to the senior citizens and to the disadvantageous circumstances of teen pregnancy, among others.
Dr. Nimfa B. Torrizo, DOH regional director, said that women’s health is paramount to the development of a community and their welfare must be looked into and their role in nation building be strengthened.
“If we want to have a healthy nation, women who are primarily responsible in bringing human population in this country, should be given the attention they deserve, particularly on health matters.” Torizzo said.
She said that the congress is part of an ongoing effort of the DOH to educate the populace of the available health services as well as encourage and inform the LGUs of the importance of establishing facilities for a sustainable health care.
The Congress is one of the schemes of DOH to establish in every province mapping and profiling of available resources to include perinatologists and neonatalogists, equipped neonatal intensive care unit, equipped maternal-fetal intensive care unit, blood services network, human immunodeficiency virus treatment hubs and testing and counseling units.
“During the Congress, we will also be doing blood typing for both women and men to establish a blood type registry in every town so that when the need arises the local health office could easily source blood donors among the residents,” said Dr. Ellenietta HMV Gamolo, chief DOH-10 Local Health Support Division.
She said that pregnant women will be assessed of their condition to determine the possibility of medical complications during child birth and right away counsel the patient and refer those pregnancies to the specialists.
Gamolo said that one of the important points of DOH’s Service Delivery Network is to possibly assign or deploy obstetricians and pedia residents in rural health units with high maternal and infant mortalities. “In this way we will be able to achieve a lower maternal and infant mortality rates.”
DOH said that the region is aiming at reducing maternal and infant mortality by 52 per 100,000 live births from the current 72 to 100,000 live births.
DOH said that part of the KP is to bring the awareness to families and schools on child care and nutrition program with the National Nutrition Council as well as educate the adolescents on the consequences of teen pregnancy through the Commission on Population.