BAGUIO CITY – The City Council approved on first reading a proposed ordinance providing for the put up of child-minding services and lying-in clinics in the city to take care for the time being of the children of mothers delivering babies.
The ordinance, authored by Councilor Leandro B. Yangot, Jr., stated that the City Health Services shall be mandated to work on the put up of these child-minding services and lying-in clinics in the city.
Further, the City Health Services Office shall determine which among the various lying-in clinics in the city are feasible to provide child-minding services.
Under the proposed ordinance, the City Health Services Office shall assign staff in charge of the said services among the existing personnel of the lying-in clinics determined to have child-minding services.
The ordinance will authorized the City Health Services Office to set rules and regulations for the proper operation of the child-minding services to guarantee the compliance of lying-in clinics to existing rules and regulations in the operation of the said facilities.
The ordinance stipulated that the budgetary requirements to operate child-mining services in the government shall be included in the next annual budget following the approval of the proposed local legislative measure and every year thereafter.
Yangot underscored that the local government is giving primordial attention to the maternal and neonatal well-being of its constituents, thus, it implemented various health reforms intended to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality in the city complimented by the enactment of important local legislations including an active information campaign, training of health personnel and building of health facilities, particularly lying-in clinics in urban areas.
Notwithstanding the efforts of the local government to improve maternal and neonatal well-being of its constituents, the ordinance disclosed that expectant mothers often opt for home delivery because they claim, among others, that no one will take care of their small children while they are delivering their babies in lying-in clinics.
Yangot argued that in order to address the said problem, the local government must provide child-minding services in identified capable lying-in facilities to encourage expectant mothers to deliver babies in the identified health facilities and as such, mothers and babies can have adequate medical care with the presence of skilled birth attendants, emergency obstetric care, when necessary, and access to family planning services.
The proposal will be referred to the Committee on Environmental Protection, Ecology and Health and Sanitation for study and recommendation before it will be calendared for second reading for publication, second reading after publication and third reading.
The ordinance is expected to complement existing national and local legislations intended to significantly improve the delivery of health care services to the people and contribute in efforts to reduce maternal deaths in urban areas like Baguio City.
By Dexter A. See
