A nation’s guilt

The year 2015 was set by the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000 to fulfill six of eight international development goals, which are to: eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and empower women, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, and combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases.

There are about 40 specific indicators encompassing these six targets, with very distinct measuring gauges that give credibility to gathered data. The last two goals (to ensure environmental sustainability, and develop a global partnership for development) have deadlines beyond 2015.

At first glance, it’s almost sure that the Philippines will not be able to meet many of the targets  set – even on an extrapolated basis using the last measurements that are based on 2013 figures.

The fifth indicator, specifically aspiring to reduce by three quarters – between 1990 and 2015 – the maternal mortality ratio, will be the biggest loser with the maternal mortality ratio of 209 (for every 100,000 live births) in 1990 even increasing to 221 in 2011.

Even if we move heaven and earth, there’s no likelihood that the future collated survey and field reports will be anywhere near the goal of just 52 maternal deaths in 2015.

Collective shame

In plain words, we’re losing two mothers for every 1,000 children born. With the big possibility that the orphaned newborn is not the only child that would have to grow up without a mother, the nation stands to at least double the number of its orphaned children.

When Glyzelle Iris Palomar, the 12-year-old child who had been rescued from the city streets by a Church-run shelter, asked Pope Francis last Sunday why God allowed children to be abandoned by their parents and left on their own to despairing situations, this nation should have felt a collective shame.

Each and every Filipino had allowed these children, orphaned by maternal deaths or simply through abandonment, to live such abject lives, to be caught in the web of drug addition and prostitution at tender ages when their peers are reading school books and preparing to be a part of a productive society.

Organizations like the Tulay ng Kabataan Foundation are helping, but the truth is there are still many more Glyzelles, and perhaps even increasing in numbers, that need to be shepherded back to a life of human dignity. This should be a wake-up call for all of us who can do something to help.

In fact, every Glyzelle on the street is an urgent enough reason for this country, including the government, to strive to meet the MDGs.

Maternal well-being

Many of the mothers who died in childbirth were middle-aged, already with two or more children who had been waiting at home to greet the latest addition to the family.

The major cause of death is usually a complication resulting from poor health related to poverty, causes that ironically could have been prevented with proper diagnosis and intervention. Many, in their last month of pregnancy, had seen a doctor only once: when they were already in labor.

The leading cause of maternal death is still hypertension aggravated by child birth. In the labor room, these mothers’ battered bodies that resulted from prolonged inadequate nutrition, over-fatigue, and overall abuse were not able to withstand the further rigors of child birth.

Clearly, such death-inducing ailments cannot be remedied alone by pouring money to improving healthcare facilities in the country’s barangays, or by having more qualified midwives and healthcare personnel.

By the time a sick pregnant woman makes a first appearance in a birthing clinic, it is almost too late to save her. Unfortunately, for this reason, even public hospitals and clinics are not keen on accepting child-birthing patients that cannot show a record of pre-natal check-ups.

Pre-natal care

It’s sad that the Department of Health, which should be the guardian of this MDG indicator, had badly flopped in addressing the maternal mortality problem, even after so much funds and resources had been mobilized as early as the 2010s.

A mother’s care during pregnancy had not been given the proper emphasis, with many women-at-risk reaching full-term without realizing the complications that could arise from going into labor and actually delivering a child.

The profile of such women who face complications – and even death—during childbirth should be reviewed and given a proper response. Part of the remedy here could be mandatory pre-natal check-ups for all pregnant women and resource support for mothers at risk.

Of course, putting more teeth in the controversial Responsible Parenthood and Reproduction Health Act of 2012 is a must, especially that which deals with managing population growth.

Beyond 2015

It’s never too late to do something.

Already, the UN has released the synthesis report on the post-2015 development agenda entitled “The Road to Dignity by 2030: Ending Poverty, Transforming All Lives and Protecting the Planet.”

This report takes off from the inputs and process that had gone in the MDG 2015, and comes up with a new vision for the next 15 years. For countries like the Philippines, which have not been able to make substantial progress in some of their 2015 objectives, now is a good time to set in motion corresponding workable plans.

By the way, there is a global civil society campaign called Beyond 2015, which is pushing for a strong and legitimate successor framework to the Millennium Development Goals. The underlying reason for its existence is the belief that the citizenry itself should solve poverty problems.

Yes, we too have a part in bringing solutions to our society’s problems. Let’s not have more dead mothers during child birth. Let’s not have any more Glyzelles in this country.

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