The death of a
newborn is a heartbreaking ordeal, especially for a woman who painstakingly
held a life in her womb, a woman expecting to cradle a healthy infant in the
arms of safety.
Twenty six -year-old Mira of Bulacan
gave birth to twins who never got to see the light of day. Mira’s twins MJ and
JM were lost to the world’s largest killer of babies: preterm birth
complications. The thing with Mira and with most grieving mothers who had lost
their children to prematurity is that they think medication is expensive and
inaccessible to the poor—this is not entirely true.
Possible interventions are within
reach; just like the case of Sara Padilla, the 19-year old mom who also gave
birth to a preemie, King Phillip. Sara’s baby survived and passed the critical
stage due to medical interventions.
Going back to Mira, her twins are,
sadly, now part of the infant mortality cases in the Philippines—cases that are
badly in need of a dramatic reduction.
Albeit locally, the number of under-5 deaths declined significantly in
the past twenty years2, this is an achievement bound to be
short-lived. The slow decline in newborn survival has had us missing out on our
millennium development goal in reducing child mortality by two-thirds this 20152.
Time to ensure we
meet the goal
In the year 2000, the United Nations,
through the Millennium Summit, launched a new standard in the form of The
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). These are eight international development
goals established following the adoption of the United Nations Millennium
Declaration—with reducing child mortality as the fourth goal.
With that said, the statistics alone
don’t leave us with much hope. Across 184 countries, the rate of preterm birth
ranges from 5% to 18% of babies born 1. Our country ranks 2nd
in the number of premature births in Southeast Asia, 8th worldwide,
and 17th in deaths arising from preterm birth complications2.
Furthermore, complications plague
preterm babies on an equally alarming scale. It is the leading cause of death
among children under 5 years of age, and is responsible for nearly 1 million
deaths in 20132. To be more specific, it is neonatal respiratory
distress syndrome (RDS) which is the second leading cause of death among
premature infants in the Philippines, and the leading verifiable one3.
Juxtaposing death
with life, problem with the solution
With this at hand, The Philippine
Society of Newborn Medicine (PSNbM), together with the Department of Health,
Philhealth, and the Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital joined forces in
championing a campaign set on averting more needless deaths in children, and
ensuring that the millennium development goal in child mortality is met. By
juxtaposing a newborn’s breath of life and the struggle to escape death, HINGA|HINGALO
ni Baby was formed. HINGA|HINGALO ni Baby communicates
the gamble in childbirth; that despite the joy in the miracle of giving birth,
premature birth complications reduce a baby’s survival into a coin flip
triggered by nothing but chance alone.
PSNbM notes that in the current
landscape, there is a lack of a sense of urgency and insufficient action
towards addressing the world’s largest cause of death in newborn children.
“While initiatives by the government, the health sector, and international
organizations helped the country achieve a huge drop in child mortality, there
is still a need for a more centralized and more concentrated effort in ending
this grave national health issue,” shares PSNbM President Dr. Carina C. Quimbo.
The HINGA|HINGALO ni Baby
movement will inform the public about the gravitas of preterm morbidities and
mortalities and its implications on an individual and national level starting
with a documentary video that offers a behind-the-scenes look at local cases of
child mortality, specifically those from Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital,
the institution with the most number of premature births in Manila.
Moreover, the campaign aims to
disclose top preterm birth complications and existing interventions, and drive
audiences to the right channels where they can avail of said interventions.
“With #hingahingalo, we are doing our part in averting more needless deaths in
infants, and plotting the course towards finally meeting our millennium
development goal of reducing child mortality,” Dr. Quimbo shares. “Together we
can win this battle against prematurity and stop losing lives of the innocent.”
#####
HINGA | HINGALO
ni Baby; Choose Life | Reduce Newborn
Deaths is a campaign championed by The Philippine Society of Newborn
Medicine (PSNbM) to lead the discourse on prematurity as a prevalent national
health issue. To know more about HINGA | HINGALO ni Baby, contact us via www.psnbm.org.ph or like us on
facebook at www.facebook.com/pages/Philippine-Society-of-Newborn-Medicine-Inc
[1] Preterm birth, Fact sheet N°363, Who.int, Updated November 2014
[2] Time to focus on more than 350,000 preterm births in the
Philippines every year, 2012
[3] Born Too Soon: The Global Action Report on Preterm Birth, World
Health Organization, 2012
