The rising deaths of Filipino babies and their mothers this year reflect an issue of difficulty in accessing quality services from healthcare facilities in the country, according to the Commission on Population and Development's (POPCOM) latest news bulletin.

Citing data from the Philippines Statistics Authority (PSA), POPCOM said a notable increase in the number of fatalities classified under “other direct obstetric deaths,” was recorded in the first six months of 2022 at 468.

This year’s figure is higher compared to the 425 deaths recorded in the same period in 2021, it said.

“This condition indicates an issue in accessing appropriate, quality, and timely services from healthcare facilities. It poses the challenge to improve our local health system for emergency obstetric and newborn care, which was definitely affected during the pandemic,” POPCOM officer-in-charge Executive Director (OIC-ED) Lolito R. Tacardon said.

Obstetric death or direct maternal deaths as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) are those “resulting from obstetric complications of the pregnant state (pregnancy, labor, and puerperium), and from interventions, omissions, incorrect treatment, or from a chain of events resulting from any of the above.”

Tacardon appealed for more medical attention to be given to mothers and their babies, especially in the 1,000 days of their lives which health practitioners considered as the most critical stage.

He noted that although fatalities among under five-year-old children have drastically gone down from 103 in 1960 to 26 in 2020, a gap remains in enhancing the health conditions of mothers and young kids to further reduce child mortalities and improve their survival rates.

“This also calls for the full and intensified implementation of the Universal Health Care Law, as well as the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Law, which mandate the upholding of the well-being and overall health of Filipino moms and their young children,” Tacardon said.