Healthy women = healthy nation

As we close women’s month, we highlight MSD’s commitment to women’s health. After all, women of sound health constitute a healthy nation. 

“Rarely can a speaker ask for a show of hands where he is 100-percent certain that everyone will raise their hands. And, the question is this: Who in this room has a mother?” begins Dr. Naveen Rao as he leads “Merck for Mothers,” the corporate social responsibility arm of pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co, Inc. (locally known as MSD) during a press gathering at the Merck HQ in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey. He then gives these grim statistics, “At about eight this morning, one jumbo jet of pregnant women crashed and again at eight in the evening, another jet full of pregnant women crashed. Imagine two crashes every day, because that is what it is: About 1,000 women die every day, 350-plus days a year. So, if we don’t do anything within the next decade, about three million women will die.”

Shocking, yes, but Rao merely paints the picture of women’s health today. “In many parts of the world, when somebody’s sister, daughter, or wife gets pregnant, we think of many things, including what color to paint the room,” Rao explains. “But, in many parts of the world, the number one question is: Is she going to survive? In many parts of the world, she is not going to survive.” 

Girl power

But, why zero in on women? Rao explains, “Maternal death isn’t just a normal death. When a woman dies prematurely, the child in the womb most likely dies, the children at home die, especially in countries where there is no one to take care of them, the family dies, the community dies, the nation dies.”

The United Nations recognizes these same realities and highlights the importance of safeguarding women’s health. In fact, in 1990, the UN developed the eight Millennium Developmental Goals (MDG), addressing prominent global issues. Listed among the weighty hard-hitters, like curbing poverty and hunger and promoting gender equality, is Millennium Developmental Goal number five: controlling maternal mortality. The UN’s MDG 5 aims to reduce the maternal mortality ratio by 75 percent and create universal access to reproductive health. 

Last September, Merck CEO Ken Frazier was invited to the United Nations general assembly where he announced Merck’s commitment to promote women’s health and safeguard mothers all over the world. This commitment came in the form of Merck For Mothers, a 10-year, half-billion-dollar initiative that applies Merck’s scientific and business expertise to making proven solutions more widely available, developing new game-changing technologies, and improving public awareness, policy efforts, and private sector engagement for maternal mortality. 

“Today, MSD commits itself to a world where no woman has to die of complications of pregnancy and childbirth. No woman has to die giving life,” stresses Rao. “By doing so, we vow to help create sustainable developments in health systems and be an effective partner in communities around the world and touch the lives of millions — even save the lives of millions.” 

On the homefront

The Philippines can stand to gain a lot from commitments like this. Figures show that the country needs as much support as it can possibly get. Based on a United Nations report, out of the Southeast Asian countries, the Philippines is one of the least likely to meet the MDG goals by 2015 due to the high rate of maternal mortality in the country.  The report cites 2005 statistics that count some 162 women dying in the Philippines for every 100,000 live births, compared to 110 in Thailand, 62 in Malaysia, and 14 in Singapore.  The Philippines definitely has a long way to go from the 2015 MDG goal maternal mortality rate of 52 deaths per 100,000 live births.

 “The problem in the Philippines is not really the lack of medicines, but really facilities. Women are still giving birth in the homes,” says Karen Villanueva, external affairs director of MSD Philippines.

“They don’t even go to the hospital for pre-natal checkup. The parents have to be prodded to go for a checkup,” affirms Jess Lorenzo, project director of Kaya Natin, a non-partisan organization which aims to promote good governance and ethical leadership. 

To address this reality, local Merck hub MSD stands by the company’s global commitment and vows to make a difference even on the local front.  Managing director Chris Tan shares that MSD Philippines truly wants to help bring the country closer to reaching the projected 2015 Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of improving maternal health.

The local movement

One foreseeable way of translating MSD’s commitment into more concrete action is to actively seek and support initiatives that foster health education and research, disease prevention and management, and sustainable partnerships for improving access to medicines and vaccines. MSD strongly adheres to a holistic approach in addressing national health issues. Thus, it continues to partner with the local government units, private organizations, and the concerned communities to help implement various health programs.

One such program is the Health Leaders for Mothers (HL4M), which is currently being implemented in selected barangays in Quezon City. Under the initiative, health providers, particularly barangay health workers (BHWs) and midwives, are trained in primary maternal and child healthcare. Expectant mothers in these partner communities, on the other hand, are also enrolled in PhilHealth to ensure they get the basic healthcare services. 

One of the goals of the HL4M program is to establish an effective community-based healthcare referral system. Through skilled and knowledgeable BHWs and midwives, expectant mothers will be educated on the importance of pre-natal checkups and facility-based birth delivery. “Kaya Natin and SINAG, a community-run health center, have health leaders on the ground, and they go house to house every day and every week to tell pregnant mothers to undergo pre-natal check-up,” explains Lorenzo.

Leaders, supporters and volunteers of the HL4M program hold balloon hearts to symbolize their unity and commitment to support and sustain the maternal healthcare program for indigent pregnant mothers of Barangay Pansol, Quezon City. In photo are MSD managing director Chris Tan with his teammates Karen Villanueva, Dr. Beaver Tamesis, and Mike Alzona; SINAG-SMDS led by its chairman Norberto C. Nazareno and president Floy Aguenza together with other SINAG board members; Kaya Natin convenor Harvey S. Keh, project directors Jess Lorenzo and Marisa Yniguez Lerias; former San Isidro, Nueva Ecija Mayor Sonia B. Lorenzo; Quezon City 3rd District Rep. Bolet Banal; and councilor Allan Reyes.

According to MSD’s Tan, the pharmaceutical firm’s support for the HL4M program and its efforts are in accordance with its mother company’s global initiative to promote maternal healthcare.

Representative Bolet Banal, also a Kaya Natin champion, thanks the HL4M program partners on behalf of the third district of Quezon City and its constituents. “The HL4M program is a big step for our constituents in ensuring our mothers do not die due to complications from pregnancy and childbirth. We’re very grateful to MSD, Kaya Natin, Ateneo, and SINAG for being our partners in this initiative,” he says. 

In addition to programs to promote maternal health, Merck also knows that while it doesn’t want to touch on controversial issues, it has an obligation to address health realities. “Family planning is also definitely a key component of this, because if the woman has a chance to limit the family and decrease births, this covers exactly what we’re talking about,” says Rao. “Merck and the world need to understand that these are issues, and we can’t just minimize or ignore them.” 

However, in a conservative country that is home to parties still adamantly opposing reproductive health initiatives, Merck acknowledges that matters can be complicated. Nonetheless, it remains steadfast in its commitment to providing help where it is needed.

“Even if a country says ‘our GNP has a double-digit growth,’ the question you should ask is, ‘What is your maternal mortality rate?’” says Rao. “A lot of countries boast about how progressive they are, but when you ask them what their health indicators are, the one indicator that will explain every other health indicator is their maternal mortality rate. That means that if your maternal mortality is low, you don’t have any existence. The woman is the most effective indicator.”