Philippines’ maternal mortality rate worse than reported

I read with interest and concern Kathleen de Villa’s article, “DOH braces for more women giving birth in hospitals” (News, 4/2/23) where the Department of Health (DOH) was quoted as referring to Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data that the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) was 84.86 per 100,000 live births in 2021, thus on track to meet the Sustainable Development Goal MMR of 70 per 100,000 live births by 2030 for the country.

Sadly the truth is much worse than what was reported:

On Feb. 22, 2023, PSA actually reported 2,478 women died of maternal causes in 2021. MMR in 2021 was thus 189.21 per 100,000 live births (2,478/1,309,601 x 100,000).

Before 2021, the DOH reported the highest number of maternal deaths at 2,511 in 1952 and 2,645 in 1951, making 2021 the third deadliest year for childbearing in the Philippines in 69 years.

In 2019, 1,458 women died of maternal causes, or four per day; 2021 with 2,478 maternal deaths, saw seven mothers dying every day (only 1952 and 1951 saw seven maternal deaths per day).

In the Southeast Asian region, only Cambodia (218) and Timor Leste (204) had more maternal deaths.

The year 2021 was the deadliest in the country not only because of COVID but because the entire health system was reeling. More people died from preventable causes (almost 160,000) than from COVID (105,000) when you look at excess mortality.

It is now apparent maternal health was so affected that it has set us back by half a century. But we should have seen this coming. The country has reduced spending on reproductive health from 15.8 percent in 2018 to 8.3 percent in 2021 (Technical Note on Key Observations on the Philippine National Health Accounts 2020 and 2021-USAID Protect Health).Now is the time to rethink and strengthen social policies in the country that can address this burden on women and the vulnerability of the health and population sectors. We cannot be an upper-middle-income country with seven mothers dying every day.

Juan Antonio A. Perez III, MD, MPH,

former undersecretary and

executive director,

Commission on Population and Development