RP not meeting maternal mortality rate cut targets
By TRINA LAGURAabs-cbnNEWS.com

The goal of the Philippines to reduce maternal mortality rate (MMR) to 52 deaths per 100,000 live births by 2015 will be unattainable unless proper family planning is implemented, according to a United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) report.

The report, released Friday during the World Population Day Forum in Mandaluyong City, said that in the early 1990s the country's MMR was 209 deaths per 100,000 live births, but by 1998 the ratio significantly decreased to 172.

The group, however, was alarmed by the slow drop in the number of maternal deaths since then, noticing that the MMR decreased only to 162 per 100,000 live births in 2006 or only about 22 percent in past 13 years.

This means that about 10 women die giving birth every day, the UNFPA said
"At this pace, by 2015 MMR will have only declined to 140, and the target of 52 will be unachievable," it said.

The report pointed out that better results can be achieved to bring down the MMR since the three major causes of maternal deaths – hypertension, hemorrhage and unsafe abortion – are preventable.

The UNFPA maintained that "through appropriate family planning," the MMR could decline by almost 30 percent. Maternal health is one of the goals included in the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which aim to reduce poverty across the globe by half by 2015.
MDG 5, in particular, aims to reduce MMR by 75 percent from 1990 to 2015, as well as increase access to reproductive health care.

"In the Philippines, four babies are born every minute, exerting pressure on the country's resources to support these children and plan for their future. None of the MDGs can be achieved if we do not address the issues of population squarely," it said.

The Philippines, along with more than 140 countries, marked the World Population Day Friday, an event that called on nations to promote women empowerment and reduce maternal deaths.