One midwife per health center in Liloan assured

CEBU - Expectant mothers in Liloan town who cannot afford to give birth in a private birthing clinic/hospital are now assured of the availability of one midwife for each barangay health center to attend to delivery service and care. 

Municipal Councilor Lucelito Pilapil, a medical doctor by profession who chairs the town council’s committee on health, said that the municipal government will now assign one midwife per barangay health center in Liloan.

“However, it is only the services of the midwives that’s free. Patients are to shoulder the expenses for medicines,” he clarified. 

It is already the patients’ prerogative if they would give “pahalipay” for the services rendered by the midwives, as is part of Filipino custom. “They can give donations, but this is not compulsory,” Pilapil said.

Nearby health facilities collect from around P1,000 to P4,000 in delivery fees, this was learned.

“Target priority beneficiaries of the program are pregnant mothers in the remote areas, or the mountain barangays,” Pilapil said, adding that the services of the midwives in the barangays would complement the services being given by barangay health workers.

In relation to improvements in the delivery of basic services, financial assistance worth P100,000 from Liloan Mayor Vincent Franco “Duke” Frasco was spent for the renovation of the old and dilapidated barangay health center of Yati, at the back of the barangay hall, to the delight of residents.

Janet Benabaye, 25, of sitio White Rose, said she regularly seeks medical check-up at the health center as she could not afford to go to a private clinic or hospital.