EDITORIAL – Everyone counts

Pregnant women lined up for free goodies during a commercial promo at a shopping mall yesterday as the Philippines marked World Population Day. Many of those women will need much more help in the course of their pregnancy until they give birth. And they will need continuing help as they try to raise their children in a safe and healthy environment.

In this developing country where the previous administration neglected family planning and reproductive health for nine and a half years, the mortality rate for children under age five stood at 32 per 1,000 births as of 2008, according to data compiled by the United Nations. In the same year, infant mortality rate stood at 26 per 1,000 live births, and neonatal mortality was 15 per 1,000. In all, 73,000 children under age five died of health-related causes in this country in 2008. UN data also showed a maternal mortality rate of 230 per 100,000 childbirths in 2005.

Overcrowding alone in government hospitals has been blamed for sepsis that has killed infants in recent years. A visit to the maternity ward of any government health center in Metro Manila will show mothers sharing not just hospital rooms but also beds. Rapid population growth has not been matched by an increase in resources or national production, and the ranks of the impoverished continue to increase in this country despite steady economic growth.

On World Population Day, the new administration should commit to promoting maternal and child health, by providing universal access to information on family planning and reproductive rights. Couples must be fully informed of the options available to them in providing a better quality of life for their children. Like women who have the education and the means, impoverished women must be able to make an informed choice on family planning. This is a basic human right.

Also on World Population Day, the new administration must renew the country’s commitment to collect accurate demographic information for better planning and implementation of development projects. This year’s theme for World Population Day is “Everyone Counts.” The focus is on collecting accurate demographic data through census especially in developing countries. To make everyone count on the planet, the people must first be properly counted. –(The Philippine Star)