A Position Paper on the Philippines and the Road to Millennium Development Goals

In February 2012, President Aquino has reiterated the Philippines commitment to succeed the millennium Development Goals in 2015, and vowed to work double time in coif to adjoin the different targets under the MDGs with only 4 historic period left (AquinoPHL , 2012). The Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs, is an drive launched by the get together Nations in order to improve the living conditions in different nations, by seeking to battle different social and economic problems such(prenominal) as hunger, poverty, violence, and other deprivations.Signed upon by all 193 UN member realms in September 2000, the Millennium Development Goals comprise eight (8) development goals that each member-constituent must fulfill in 15 years, which is in 2015. The goals are (1) eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, (2) achieving popular primary education, (3) promoting gender equality and empowering women, (4) reducing child mortality, (5) alter enate wellness, (6) combatting HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, (7) ensuring environmental sustainability, (8) developing a global federation for development. UNDP website, retrieved August 2012. ) Aside from the perennial problems of battling poverty and eradicating different epidemics, the 5th goal, improve enate health, remains an underlooked scarce equally pressing concern in the country. In a 2011 report by the Department of Health (Philippines ranks 48 , 2010) , not only has the Philippines failed to improve the paternal mortality ratio (MMR), but the figure of mothers dying during vaginal birth has even ballooned, from 162 devastations in 100,000 bonk births in 2009, to 221 deaths in 100,000 live births in 2011.The statistics is definitely alarming, especially when compared to the figures of other nations such as 110 in Thailand, 62 in Malaysia and 14 in Singapore, all in 100,000 live births. The target that we perplex to reach is 55-60 deaths per 100,000 live births, which is a far cry from where the Philippines stands now. According to the report from the United Nations, the causes of motherlike death in the country are hemorrhage, sepsis, obstructed labour, hypertensive disorders in pregnancy, and complications of unsafe abortion, most of which are prevent fitted with proper diagnosis and incumbrance (Philippines , 2010). Department of Health secondretary Enrique Ona expressed the same sentiment when he explained that maternal deaths could be easily prevented with effective family formulation services, antenatal care, and find to health facilities capable of handling complications (RH Bill key to attaining MDG Sec Ona, 2012). These figures should definitely be a cause for alarm. More women actually collapse of complications each year, which not only stalls our progress in morose the MMR in the country, but ultimately makes any hopes of fulfilling it much bleaker.The worsening state of maternal care in the Philippines is very telling of our healthcare system, and how il l-equipped it is to address a long-standing problem. The call for improvement in maternal health is not an arbitrary cause. In fact, the achievement of this goal is essential in order to fufill the other targets such as poverty reduction, hunger, and promoting gender equality. alter the plight of maternal health does not only mean improving the quality of life of newborns and their respective families, but by also braggy mothers informed choices.Maternal care, after all, does not begin and end with pregnancy and childbirth it also includes taking into account the responsibility of conceiving life. Hence, as it has always been established, efficient and effective family planning is the main solution. As reiterated earlier, it is also important to strike out that family planning also entails the power of spareing women to make informed choices. Empowering women to decide whether or not to reproduce based on given facts would help a large deal in keeping them at bay from effectiv eness health risks, as well as rearing of children whom they are not able to generate their needs for.The ability for health facilities to care for those mothers with complications, as well as the widespread training of more(prenominal) midwives to better help in childbirth is something that the government is lagging behind to deliver. In order to impose an urgency to provide better facilities and more skilled professionals, a carefully-structured and comprehensive legislative framework is in order to be able to more effectively address the reproductive health services the Philippines need.The obligated Parenthood, Reproductive Health and creation and Development Act Bill, or domicil Bill 4244 is an example of an effort to bring RH services to the Filipino people. One of the bills mandates is to centralize the local government units to provide easy access to care and treatment for reproductive health, and make family planning supplies available for regular purchase at drugstor es and hospitals. Moreover, the bill would also allow the deployment of more midwives in different regions in order to attend to more deliveries.Especially important is the access to information for couples and individuals alike to adopt family planning, and the education on reproductive health. (HB 4244, 2011). Responsible parenthood and informed choices are key in the house bill. The bill would also spearhead a maternal death review, in order to better understand past trends in maternal mortality and to determine how to improve these conditions. Ensuring the passing of the bill is the best effort that the country can hope for in order to create strong progress in the improvement of maternal health.However, given the time we have left, it is still unlikely that we would reach the actual target specified in the MDGs. Still, the enactment of the RH bill can promise significant deepen in the predicament of maternal care. Unless the government would concentrate on cover legislative solution such as HB 4244, the 2015 goal for maternal health remains hopeless and the future of of mothers, uncertain. Sources The Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health, and Population and Development Act of 2011, H. B. 4244, 15th Cong. 1st Sess. (2011). Ng, Jennifer. (2012, February 12). Aquino PHL to achieve MDGs in 4 years. Business Mirror. Retrieved from http//businessmirror. com. ph/home/top-news/23195-aquino-phl-to-achieve-mdgs-in-4-years? tmpl=component&print=1&layout=default&page= Philippine Obstetrical and Gynecological Society. (n. d. ) Philippines ranks 48 in Maternal Mortality. Retrieved from http//www. pogsinc. org/v2/index. php/component/content/article/10/58-philippines-ranks48-in-maternal-mortality Alave, Kristine. (2012, June 18).