Pia warns: "Ten Filipino mothers expected to die on Mother's Day"

Here's a chilling thought: despite great advances in medical science, around ten to eleven mothers in the Philippines still die from childbirth complications every day. The current national rate of 162 deaths per 100,000 live births is said to be one of the worst maternal mortality rates in Asia.

"At least ten Filipino mothers are therefore expected to die on birth-related complications this Sunday, May 10, when the entire world observes Mother's Day. It could also mean the same number of children will be growing up without a mother."

Thus lamented Senator Pia S. Cayetano, as she warned the Arroyo regime not to close its eyes to the country's mediocre ranking in the tenth annual "State of the World's Mothers 2009 Report." The Philippines placed a poor 42nd out of 75 "Less Developed" countries in the annual survey, slipping four notches from its 38th ranking in the same survey last year, she noted.

Released this week to mark Mother's Day, the report prepared by the United States-based non-profit group Save the Children Inc., factors in key indicators related to health, education and socio-economic status in each country to rank the "best place for mothers" in the world. (See attached "State of the World's Mothers 2009 Summary" in .pdf format and 57 KB size, or log on to www.savethechildren.org for more information.)

"It is lamentable that the Philippines is becoming more 'mother-unfriendly' when the government should be working for the fulfillment of our Millennium Development Goals (MDG) particularly reduction of maternal mortality (MDG No.5) and children-under-five mortality (MDG No.4)," said Cayetano, Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Social Justice and President of the Committee of Women Parliamentarians of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).

"We are retrogressing instead of advancing with respect to these goals. These are red marks on Mother's Day that should merit more than the usual lip service from our government, headed as it is by a woman president who is supposed to be the 'mother' of the entire nation," she added. She likewise noted that the National Economic and Development Agency (NEDA) had admitted recently the country will not be able to meet its MDGs by 2015 due to the global economic crisis.

Covering a total of 154 nations, the State of the World's Mothers 2009 survey came out with separate rankings for the "More Developed" (Tier 1), "Less Developed" (Tier 2), and "Least Developed" countries (Tier 3) based on how each country in each tier scored on the Mothers' Index.

The Mothers' Index is calculated as the weighted average of children's well-being (30%), women's health status (20%), women's educational status (20%), women's economic status (20%), and women's political status (10%).

Sweden, Norway and Australia were the top three countries in Tier 1; Cuba, Israel and Argentina in Tier 2; while Maldives, Cape Verde and Uganda in Tier 3.

Bracketed in Tier 2, the Philippines (42) got a lower ranking than most of its Southeast Asian neighbors including Thailand (11), Vietnam (23) and Malaysia (36), although it placed higher than Indonesia (58).

Other Asian countries that ranked higher than the Philippines in Tier 2 include: Israel (2); South Korea (7); Kazakhstan (8); China (14); Kyrgyztan (17); Bahrain (21); Uzbekistan (22); Kuwait (25); Mongolia (29); Armenia (32) and United Arab Emirates (41).

Underscoring its poor ranking, Cayetano said the Philippines' Mothers' Index was critically weighed down by the following indicators:

• Only 60% of births were attended by skilled health personnel in 2007;

• Only 33% of women used modern contraception in 2008;

• 28 children under five died per 1,000 live births in 2007;

• 28% of children under five were moderately or severely underweight in 2007;

• Only 83% gross secondary enrolment ratio in 2007; and

• Only 93% of population has access to safe water in 2006.

"What's also troubling is that the Reproductive Health Bill and Magna Carta of Women are being sidelined in Congress because this administration refuses to support measures seeking to advance the well-being of mothers and their children."

Cayetano has long been pushing for the realignment of government funds for basic community health services, particularly to finance the appointment of at least one midwife for every barangay and the upgrading of facilities in primary health care centers that render maternal and childbirth services.