Digital platforms for family planning

HEALTH authorities are prompted to tap digital platforms after the country recorded a relatively high mortality rate of about 111 maternal deaths per 100,000 women giving birth.

This effort aims to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of reducing the mortality ratio to 70 per 100,000 live births by 2030.

Maximizing the use of digital platforms to deliver family planning services as part of efforts to curb the high maternal death rate is expected to help families cope with the worsening poverty situation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The large number of unmet need for family planning in the country still translates to around 2,000 women dying of maternal related causes,” said Commission on Population and Development (POPCOM) executive director Juan Antonio Perez III, during Bayer’s Asia Pacific Virtual Forum on Women’s Health, Empowerment, and Progress.

While the country achieved success in reducing unmet family planning need early this decade, such success is being eroded by the limited access by the poor.

According to the National Demographic and Health Survey 2017, the unmet need for family planning already decreased to 17 percent, which accounts for two million Filipino women who have difficulty accessing family planning and contraceptive methods due to financial means or other hindrances.

Movement limitations on transportation and health services due to the pandemic are raising this rate of unmet family planning need.

“What we’ve seen on the ground is that because of lockdowns and restrictions, there is limited public transport, particularly in Metro Manila and in nearby regions,” added Perez.

Women across Asia Pacific are experiencing difficulties accessing family planning services due to the global crisis. However, the worst is being felt by developing countries like the Philippines with its already large population at 109 million.

COVID-19 has also caused budget restrictions, as focus is now on testing, treatment, and quarantine measures.

“We have a lot in place for which we have prioritized resources, but because of the constraints due to our situation, we may have to bring down the budget a bit for next year, and that is a concern for us at POPCOM,” Perez said.

Prior to the pandemic, the number of women using family planning doubled from four to eight million, he added.

According to Perez, POPCOM health workers are going the extra mile of delivering contraceptives to the homes of poor women who are quarantined within their communities, adding that they are looking to other channels to augment their efforts.

“Digital means of delivering family planning services will still be one of our priorities. Women and their maternal health are priorities of great importance in our health plans,” he emphasized.

“Women take on many burdens. They work at home and they take on income-generating tasks, making them an important facet for the household economy.  An unplanned pregnancy will lead to economic deprivation and an untimely use of savings. With this, women should have a choice when it comes to reproductive health to maintain that status of contributing to the economy,” he said./PN