Senator Sherwin T. Gatchalian on Wednesday reiterated the urgency of providing health and nutrition interventions for vulnerable infants and mothers, especially those in far-flung and poverty-stricken areas.
MANILA
Rozhiell Fernandez adjusted her mask and attended to her newborn twins lying on a cramped cot inside Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital’s Ward 4, one of the busiest maternity wards in the world.
Women in faded hospital gowns surrounded her, cradling their babies on beds pressed together in pairs to accommodate up to six nursing mothers at a time. The overcrowding rendered safe distancing impossible and, occasionally, a mother displaying COVID-19 symptoms was wheeled away to an isolation wing.
Fernandez did not want to be at this 100-year-old public hospital, nicknamed the “Baby Factory.” It lies in one of the poorest neighborhoods of the Philippine capital, hemmed in by shanties and the infamous Manila City Jail.
Press Release
Gatchalian seeks health interventions for vulnerable infants, mothers amid looming baby boom
While the Commission on Population and Development (POPCOM) expects the uptick of lockdown babies to peak in the first half of 2021, Senator Win Gatchalian reiterated the urgency of providing health and nutrition interventions for vulnerable infants and mothers, especially those in far-flung and poverty-stricken areas.
Gatchalian explained that these interventions and programs are provided for under the Kalusugan at Nutrisyon ng Mag-Nanay Act (Republic Act 11148) or the First 1,000 Days Law, which aims to scale up nutrition intervention programs in the first 1,000 days of a child s life, from conception up to the second birthday. The law gives priority to those who are living in unserved and underserved communities.
The Philippines is expected to record a slower population growth rate of 1.31% by the end of 2021, the government said Wednesday, noting that Filipinos opting for smaller families may be causing the decline. But experts said the impact of the coronavirus pandemic may slightly alter demographic trends.