By Jonnie H. Buenaventura

Tacloban City (1 August) -- The Regional Development Council-Social Development Council (RDC-SDC) has convened yesterday for a meeting at National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), conference area, Palo, Leyte to study the proposal of the Department of Health (DOH), Regional Office 8 requesting all Sangguniang Panlalawigan, Panglungsod, and Bayan to enact an ordinance supporting healthy facility-based deliveries attended by skilled birth attendants.

In their proposed resolution they presented to the committee. The DOH resolution put emphasis why Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) or "hilot" in the local dialect should be regulated.

According to the DOH the Philippines has committed to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of reducing maternal mortality from 209 (1995 NDHS) to 52 per 100,000 live births by 2015.

The 2006 Family Planning and Maternal Mortality Survey showed that the country has a high maternal mortality ratio of 162 per 100,000 live births, 62.3% of births in the five years prior to the survey were attended to by health professionals and 34.5% by TBA or "hilot", 43.5% of births were delivered in a health facility, whereas 56.5% were at home.

In region VIII, only 42.9% of births were attended by health professionals while 54.5% were by a "hilot" and that only 29.9% of births were in health facilities while 70.1% were home deliveries.

In the past, two basic strategies had been employed to address high maternal mortality- the risk approach, focused on identifying high-risk pregnancies for referral during parental period, and the training of traditional birth attendants- but these did not succeed in reducing maternal mortality.

The proposal of the DOH was for the introduction of the new approach which is the Emergency Obstetrics Care (EMOC) which considers all pregnant women at risk of complications at childbirth, thus all deliveries should be attended by skilled birth attendants and mothers should deliver in health facilities and have access to Basic Emergency Obstetric Care (BEMOC) facilities and services.

During the discussion in the SDC meeting, the DOH when ask what will happen to the displaced TBAs if they will strictly implements the total regulation of TBA, and what about those pregnant mothers in remote areas who cannot afford the services of health professionals due to financial constraints.

The DOH could not ascertain what guiding parameters should be imposed.

The SDC committee which is chaired by Forter G. Puguon, Regional Director, DOLE-8, ask the committee two options either to adopt the proposal of the DOH for deliberation during the RDC joint committee meeting or to create another Technical Working Group (TWG).

The SDC committee was unanimously voted for the creation of the TWG who will study the DOH proposal before passing to the RDC.