214,000 lockdown babies to be born next year

MANILA, Philippines — Around 214,000 babies from unplanned pregnancies are expected to be born next year due to the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, an official of the Commission on Population (PopCom) said Friday night.

Citing initial studies of the University of the Philippines Population Institute (UPPI), PopCom executive director Juan Antonio Perez III noted there will be some 214,000 babies born from unplanned pregnancies in 2021.

“They also predicted that 600,000 women will not be able to get (family planning) supplies… (This means) one pregnancy for every three women who are not able to get the supplies that they need,” he told “The Chiefs” on One News.

According to Perez, family planning services have been hampered by the implementation of ECQ which paralyzed public transportation in the entire Luzon.

As a result of this, one third of rural health workers were not able to come to health centers to render services.

At the same time, there are also women who are not able to get their family planning supplies from health centers because of the lockdown.

Perez added they have requested the health facilities to deliver contraceptive supplies, such as pills and condoms, directly to the homes of women who are already enrolled in family planning programs.

“The report was 60 percent (of women) were able to do it that way while the other women would still have to go out to the health centers,” he claimed.

More unplanned pregnancies

But Perez admitted there will be more than the projected 214,000 because this did not include pregnancies involving women who did not get their contraceptives.

He said there are three million women who are not using any family planning method and they have increased risk of pregnancies during lockdowns when “they are together all the time with their partners.”

However, he underscored that, because of the lockdowns, the rate of teenaged pregnancies in the country had been reduced.

Perez said the UPPI had predicted that for every 85,000 teenage pregnancies that would happen normally, it would go up by about 5,000. 

“That’s why it is not as big as adults... Premarital sex happens at home. Now you have parents at home so they have less opportunity. So potentially, it might be increasing but we are happy with the lower rates,” he added.

Long-acting

Since it remains uncertain when the COVID-19 crisis will end, Perez has urged women  to consider “long-acting” contraceptives like intra-uterine devices and sub-dermal implants which will not require them to go “back and forth to health centers.”

“If you have not decided on the number of children, and you are relying on a method that is commodity-based, then you are truly at risk for another unplanned child. So, we’d like to encourage women to use a more long-acting method,” he added.