The Nation's Wonder Women: The Status of Mothers in the Philippines

As an adolescent, I cannot imagine myself getting into marriage at this age; I am too young, too clueless to have a family as stable as the one my parents have made. No matter how much I would love my partner and future children, I wouldn't be able to be responsible for my family since I do not have any occupation and cannot stand on my own in society. This is why I'm studying college—so that I can become a capable adult with a good character and personality fitting for a family.

This is also why I find it very heartbreaking to see how many adolescents are going through parenthood irresponsibly without even understanding what they are actually doing. According to the Guttmacher Institute, among approximately five million adolescent women who accounted 19% of all women of reproductive age (15-49), 15% percent of adolescent Filipino women were reported to have had sex. Among women aged 18-24, 19% had sex before 18. This was much more prevalent among the poor and those living in rural areas [1].

This is the sad reality that runs in our country right now. Why is it that these adolescents—young teenagers full of potential with a future ahead of them—end up raising a family at such a young age? This is the age where people usually grow into the best version of themselves as they build their character and their personality, but such circumstances deprive them of such opportunities.

I personally think the discrepancy of sex and pregnancy cases are influenced by the values and routine of lives. Let us take the wealthy and the poor for example. People living in wealthy and urban lives are career-oriented and success-driven. They would be willing to get married at a later time as they spend more time in self-development. However, people who are in the marginalized sector live relatively simple lives and are prone to be involved in sexual activities. They also do not live lavish leisure lives; most of their days are filled with stress as they work for their family's welfare. As a result, they get stressed, and they need an outlet to release such stress. Sex is a pastime for them to alleviate the stresses from working. Compound this with the lack of knowledge in sexual education and family planning, and more unwanted pregnancies occur.

Besides this, the availability of sex education and different levels of awareness between the two social classes affect their perception towards sex as well as their sexual activity and frequency. With regards to marriage and parenthood, one in ten adolescent Filipino women were marrying or entering into consensual union. Teenage unions were more than four times as common among women living the poor households (17%) as among those in the wealthy ones (4%). Teenage motherhood is progressively rising over time [1].

To top it all off, abortion is illegal in the Philippines regardless of whether it can hurt the pregnant woman’s life or not [1]. In other words, one mistake—that is, one unplanned, unintended, and untimed pregnancy—will affect your whole life, and there are no solutions such as abortion (at least here in the Philippines).

This is problematic in the long run for mothers in the Philippines; they are very much vulnerable to things that are detrimental to their lives. With that being said, many organizations as well as the government sought to intervene and consequently implemented some programs to help alleviate the situations. Here are examples of some issues and the government and organizations’ response:

HIV

HIV is an alarming issue in the Philippines. Though the prevalence of HIV and AIDS in the Philippines may seem low, it still has an abrupt rise (25%) in reports about new HIV cases over less than a decade—from 2001 to 2009 in particular. This can be attributed to risky behaviors such as unprotected male-to-male sex, prostitution and intravenous drug use [2].

To address this, the UNICEF decided to target adolescents since they often get neglected from services and programs for such health matters despite the high chance being exposed to having sexual activities. They proposed to remove age barriers of HIV testing and counseling for minors, reinforce services available for adolescents and pregnant women, increase capacity of social workers, strengthen monitoring system of HIV and increase investment and budget allocations. Also, they have included HIV awareness campaigns in high schools [2].  

Family Planning

Family planning programs are DOH-made public health programs that uphold basic principles such as responsible parenthood and parenting, respect for life, birth spacing, and informed choice. It calls hospitals and partner NGOs from urban and rural poor communities to all be equipped with proper family planning services; it also expands volunteer health workers. It also provides education and counseling activities and activates advocacies [3]. An example of family planning would be one of our previous blogs: Contraceptives: A Precursor to Family Planning.

Maternal Health

Another issue that mothers face in the Philippines is the rise of maternal mortality. Maternal mortality has increased from 162 to 221 deaths per 100,000 live births between 2006 and 2011. The main contributor to this increase was the ineffectiveness of family planning programs [4]. Maternal health then should be a priority for the government to focus on.

As a response, the government implemented a more improved program: the Maternal and Child Health Integrated Program (MCHIP). The MCHIP is a 21-month governmental program that addresses the unmet need for postpartum (i.e. following the childbirth) family planning in the country. Its main activities include improving on resources for service delivery and training for family planning services by assessing and replicating the program to other sites and by regularly updating guidelines of family planning. It also works on building capacity of midwives in the provinces [4].

In conclusion, It has nearly been a decade since the Philippines has implemented policies and services for sexual and reproductive health. However, the increase in the rate of adolescent childbearing has shown that those acts should be more youth-friendly as well as affordable and confidential since the services so far all need parental approval. It is very much important to focus on improving the well-being of mothers and children in the family since they are the hope of the future.

As a call to action, I would like everyone to find ways to advocate the importance of family planning. I myself am trying to support this cause; this very article is a concretization of my determination to help improve the status of the family's well-being. By elaborating on the status of mothers in the Philippines, I aim to increase the awareness of the need to invest in family planning. Indeed, this is what we do as the Safe House: we promote safety in the family.

Your family, our priority.

REFERENCES

1. Anon. 2016. Sexual and Reproductive Health of Young Women in the Philippines: 2013 Data Update. (July 2016). Retrieved November 23, 2017 from https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/sexual-and-reproductive-health-young-women-philippines-2013-data-update

2. Anon. HIV/ AIDS. Retrieved November 23, 2017 from https://www.unicef.org/philippines/hivaids.html#.Wha25Epl82x

3. Anon. FAMILY PLANNING. Retrieved November 23, 2017 from http://www.doh.gov.ph/family-planning

4. Anon. 2015. Maternal and Child Health Integrated Program (MCHIP) - Philippines. (September 2015). Retrieved November 23, 2017 from https://www.usaid.gov/philippines/health/mchip