What used to be a cargo container van is now providing pregnant women normal delivery two at a time. Called NayBahay, it’s a birthing place constructed and funded by Pfizer Philippines Foundation Inc. (PPFI).
The eco-friendly, sustainable and inexpensive steel structure has a delivery room and a ward, both of which have two beds. It was turned over by PPFI to the local government of Minalabac in Camarines Sur.
PPFI program manager Anna Leah “Nannie” Macalincag oversees the NayBahay project by monitoring its activities and actual accomplishments.
With NayBahay there’s now a ready and more accessible alternative for women to carry pregnancy and give birth in a safe environment supervised by skilled birth attendants.
From January 2012 when NayBahay opened until yearend, there were 323 recorded child births. Exactly 378 babies were delivered in 2013. From January to May this year child birth deliveries numbered 142.
NayBahay is PPFI’s way of helping lessen mother and child mortality rates.
THE COMPACT NayBahay birthing facility provides maternal healthcare that includes regular medical consultation sessions, prenatal and postnatal services, and child birth. PHOTOS BY LYN RILLON
FIRST-TIME MOTHERS visit NayBahay for prenatal checkup. From left are Juvelyn Ramos (23 years old), Regina Sicena (20), Sheila Mae Base (20) Lorieann Orbon and Julie Reduta (21).
THE FOREHEAD of 3-month-old Renz Padilla is covered by his mother with a cool wet towel to help bring down his fever at the Municipal Health Office of Minalabac, Camarines Sur.
MIDWIFE Zairah Torres uses the handheld Ultrasonic Fetal Doppler to check the heartbeat of Roselle Alano’s baby in NayBahay. Patients are charged P1,000 for a normal childbirth while complicated cases are referred to nearby hospitals.
MARILOU Arendain, due with her sixth child, rests in NayBahay’s two-bed ward. She will give birth in NayBahay for the first time.
LEZIEL Velasco poses with her more-than-one-year-old daughter Maricel, who was born in NayBahay in February last year. At the wall is the Tree of Life which shows the names of babies born here. Every year the names are changed.