Dr. Rebecca Singson-Zahar on healthy living, loving, and babies

I will never do things the way it’s always been done just because people have always done it that way. If there’s a better way to do it, I will try to find it.”

Dr. Rebecca “Becky” Singson-Zahar, chairperson of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at St. Luke’s Medical Center Global City, lives by this principle. A visit to Dr. Becky, with her exuberant personality and friendly pieces of advice, is an unforgettable breath of fresh air. A departure from the image of a stereotypical doctor who fixates on a specific medical condition, Dr. Becky goes above and beyond the call of medical duties as an ob-gyne. Dr. Becky, a strong advocate of healthy living and maternal care issues, teaches patients how to eat right, exercise, and rest. A certified travelbug, Dr. Becky will also throw in a free bonus lecture or story about her travels.

One can spot Dr. Becky a mile away, thanks to her signature bright outfits with a matching sunny smile. Nurses and hospital staff at the OB section of St. Luke’s Global agree that Dr. Becky is one of the top baby deliverers and the go-to person, especially in emergencies and tough judgment calls.

No stranger to hard work, Dr. Becky graduated magna cum laude from the University of the Philippines. She then went to the UP College of Medicine, where she was in the top 10 of her graduating class. After that, Dr. Becky trained at Makati Medical Center under the late Dr. Constantino Manahan. The alumni of St. Pedro Poveda College recently bestowed Dr. Becky with the first Povedans Outstanding in Work Ethics and Reforms (Power) award for her contributions in the field of health.

This doctor is a multi-talented woman whose own life’s love story is enough to rival any romantic movie. Dr. Becky, fluent in Italian herself, is married to the dashing Luciano Zahar who works at the University of Trieste, Italy. It’s the family’s custom for Luciano to fly to Manila for winter, and for Dr. Becky and the kids to fly to Italy for summer. An artist, singer, golfer, devoted mother to gorgeous 17-year-old twins Giovanni and Giulia, Dr. Becky shares her work, her life, and her loves. Excerpts:

PHILIPPINE STAR: You have a different mural on the walls of each of your clinics. Why so?

DR. BECKY SINGSON-ZAHAR: The wall murals in my clinic were done by the painter Milan Pilares. He’s so good! All my clinics have an Italian theme as it makes me feel as if I’m in Italy all year round. Plus, I don’t want my clinics to feel like sterile clinics. I want my patients to feel well since most of them are healthy anyway. Majority of them are either pregnant, or having a Pap smear and regular checkup.

At Makati Med, the mural is of my husband’s place — landmarks of his town, places where he swam in and grew up in. Asian Hospital’s mural is of an Italian renaissance garden — with fields, meadows, fountains, and statues. At St. Luke’s Global, I decided on Venice as it’s very close to my heart. We fly to Venice every year, and it’s where my husband Luciano picks us up.

When did you know that you wanted to be a doctor?

My mom was a frustrated doctor. When I was young, we would go for walks after dinner where she kept brainwashing me, saying that I should be a doctor. I actually wanted to be a plastic surgeon! I love the arts, and consider plastic surgery as a blend of the arts and sciences. But it was not the Lord’s will for me. At one point, I cut the Bible three times, and kept going to passages about childbirth. I consulted a spiritual elder who told me that it was clear the Lord wanted me to be an obstetrician. I applied at Makati Med, and the stack of applicants was a mile high. They were only going to get three, and I was told that one might not be able to enter without a backer. I said to myself, “The Lord is my backer, if He wants be to beome an ob, I will get accepted.” I was accepted!

I understand that you underwent a complete change of lifestyle after meeting your husband, and that you are now a proponent of eating only natural foods.

Luciano, an organic vegetarian himself, was the trigger for my own switch to healthy eating. Well, I never really believed in him before because I’m a doctor, right? “Going natural” is not our orientation. But in our fifth year of marriage, I developed a pharyngeal infection and it eventually affected my singing voice. I went to seven doctors over eight months and I took antibiotics, antivirals, antifungal drugs, steroid sprays, but nothing could get my voice back. Then I started a natural supplement that my sister told me helped her husband control his diabetes. When I got better from three weeks of natural supplements, I said, “This must be something we don’t know as doctors!” That got me on the road to natural medicine. I always say food is the most basic thing you put in your body every day. It can be your best medicine and worst poison!

Dr. Becky Singson Zahar: We eat plastic food so we end up with plastic bodies and a plastic reproductive system. We eat fake food; we end up with fake reproductive organs!

What are your interests besides work?

Oh, a lot! Music is number one. When I got my acceptance letter to UP, my mom tried to dissuade me and told me to be a singer instead — despite the fact she was the one who brainwashed me to be a doctor. I asked why, and she said, “Baka hindi ka na makapag-asawa! (laughs).” I was the conductor of the Glee Club in Poveda when I was there. When I got into UP, during my first two years of Pre-med (Biology), I was a cross-enrollee at the College of Music for voice. I had offers to be part of UP Concert Chorus. When I was in fourth year high school, I got the lead role in Pagsinta, a musical in Ateneo by Onofre Pagsanghan which eventually became a movie. But I was in a school where public performance was not allowed. It was a shame, it could have catapulted my showbiz career!

Oh, and I also love golf. But the next one I’ll make a career of is running!

What are the greatest rewards of your profession?

It would definitely be delivering a baby. Being an ob allows me to continuously participate in the creation of life, which is always awesome to me. Each birth brings tears to my eyes, and is not an experience I will ever tire of. It is also rewarding to see patients whom I treat get better — whether it be to lose weight, change lifestyle, or to balance hormones. Even simple things, such us making pimples go away, which seem small on my part because it’s so routine, is fulfilling when the patient comes back in gratitude for helping change her life.

What does it take to be an ob-gyne?

I have always said that a successful ob has got to be a man (laughs)! Or at least, if the ob is a woman like myself, she has to have a man in her. As an ob, one has to be very decisive and have a strong personality. An ob entails that you make decisions on potentially life-threatening moments.

What are the biggest challenges of leading the OB department at St. Luke’s Global City?

I think the biggest challenge of leading a department at St. Luke’s stems from the fact that the institution itself is very excellent. They are years ahead of their contemporaries, and really strive to be the best. Thus, as department head, one cannot fall short of that expectation. The challenge is how to conduct all these 44 OBs to move in the same direction as the vision of the hospital leaders. I feel very honored to be chosen as I was not part of the St. Luke’s system at all. I’m an outsider whom they plucked from many and trusted to join them.

Can you comment on the current state of health of Filipinos especially women of childbearing age?

Unfortunately, health ranks as a very, very low priority in the Philippine government. They allot such a small budget, and a lot of women still don’t have access to good pre-natal care. There are so many provinces but so few doctors there. Makikipag-agawan ka pa para makakita ng doktor sa probinsya. We still sadly have a high infant mortality/morbidity rate in the country. There’s so much that needs to be done in terms of improving our health care, especially maternal and childcare.

We see and hear so many couples having infertility problems. What can cause these?

Fertility is indeed a growing concern. In the past, sperm counts of men used to have over 50-percent normal forms. The sperm counts of men have decreased by 45 percent across the globe. It’s a worldwide problem and I believe this is nature firing back at us for all the lack of environmental concern we all have. We are also diagnosing more and more women with polycystic ovarian syndrome. What do you expect — we eat plastic food so we end up with plastic bodies and a plastic reproductive system. We eat fake food; we end up with fake reproductive organs!

How has parenting changed over the years?

During the times of our parents, husbands rarely accompanied their wives to the doctor, but now, there’s involved parenthood. There’s more knowledge on what men should do, which they didn’t learn from their fathers. Thanks to pre-natal classes, men are now discovering what their role should be during the pregnancy and childbirth process and even when rearing their children. But then, I still find that this is only true for the first baby (laughs)!

You seem to never age or look tired. What’s your beauty secret? Any words of advice to women?

Especially for those planning to conceive, start taking your vitamins, folic acid, and antioxidants. More importantly, eat only what comes from a plant, a tree or an animal. Or what grows. There’s no tree bearing a cake or chocolate. Avoid anything processed. Stay away from any form of additives, preservatives, food coloring or flavoring! Read Suzanne Somers’s awesome book entitled Breakthrough: Eight Steps to Wellness. In it, she interviews different doctors, and teaches people how to lead healthier, happier lives. You can learn so much from it!

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Dr. Rebecca Singson holds clinic at Makati Medical Center (telephone number 888-8999) on Monday (1-4 p.m.), Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday (9 a.m.-12 noon); at St. Luke’s Global City (789-7700), M/F (4-7 p.m.), T/Th/S (1-4 p.m.); and at Asian Hospital (771-9000), M/F (9 a.m.-12 noon), T/Th (5-7 p.m.).

For further comments or questions, e-mail author at stephaniecoyiuto@yahoo.com.