BAGUIO CITY – The City Health Services Office (CHSO) confirmed that five district health centers are set to be upgraded as birthing stations in the city to attend to the birthing needs of pregnant mothers in their areas of jurisdiction and to help declog the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center (BGHMC) from birthing mothers.
Dra. Maria Alice Torres, maternal and neonatal child health and nutrition coordinator, said that the district health centers that are to be upgraded to birthing stations in the city include Atok Trail, Atab, Scout Barrio, Pinsao and Irisan while the Lucan and Asin district health centers have been programmed to be elevated to birthing stations in the future.
Last year, Torres disclosed that the CHSO was able to record 4 maternal deaths in the city although 2 are not actually residents of Baguio City while for this year, there was only a lone case of maternal death which was recorded only last month.
She added preparatory works are underway for the eventual operation of the district health centers as additional birthing stations in the city to help in efforts of the health department to decongest the BGHMC, the only tertiary government hospital in the city, from the increasing number of birthing mothers and to provide quality primary health care services to the residents within their areas of jurisdiction.
Earlier, the health department embarked on the establishment of birthing stations in urban and rural areas in the country to facilitate the health-based delivery of birthing mothers so that new born babies could be immediately subjected to the required new born screening that will determine whether or not they are infected with dreaded illnesses and to allow health workers to provide mothers with the needed assistance in the medication and care of their children.
Currently, the CHSO manages the maintenance, operation and administration of some 16 district health centers that are strategically located in the different parts of the city to cater to the primary and basic health needs of the residents in the city’s 128 barangays.
Torres claimed that the 5 birthing stations that will be established in the city by the need of this year will be equipped with the appropriate personnel and units of equipment to facilitate the normal delivery of pregnant mothers who are due to deliver their children, thus, birthing mothers need not to go to the hospitals to give birth considering the proximity of the birthing stations to their places.
Last year, the City Local Civil Registry Office was able to record some 9,867 births in the city while for the first 5 months of this year, the number of births recorded by the same office was some 4,192 new born babies.
Torres explained that aside from being accredited birthing stations in the city, the 5 district health centers will also serve as facilities to spouse the good nutrition and healthy lifestyle programs of government, primarily in the rearing of children for the first 1,000 days to ensure that they will become healthy individuals once they become adults or productive individuals.
The CHSO official rallied residents in the barangays near the birthing stations that will be established to avail of the services that will be provided by the centers for them to be given the appropriate medical attention when giving birth to their children in a health-based institution.
By Dexter A. See
