Breathing life to ‘preemies’

Premature babies represent one of the most vulnerable populations of Filipinos right now, covering 50 percent of the infant mortality rate in the country. They are unable to speak and their vulnerability opens them to a lot of risks. However, this is preventable.

This was pointed out by Dr. Anthony Calibo, officer in charge of the Department of Health’s Children’s Health Development Division, in his talk during the launch of “Hinga-Hingalo ni Baby: A Movement to Save Premature Babies” on Feb. 3 at Edsa Shangri-La Hotel in Ortigas Center, Mandaluyong City.

“Prematures dying is something we do not want,” Calibo said. “While they are not yet born, there is so much the society can do.”

With even a higher number of people at risk than Ebola or Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, Calibo noted that the key in saving preterm babies is the behavioral strategies that would be influential to them.

Calibo said: “When these babies are born already, the more effort is there for each parent and for the hospital to give their best. It takes a whole community to make a child grow and in a similar stance, it takes a whole community to prevent a preterm birth.” Echoing Calibo’s concern, Philippine Society of Newborn Medicine president Dr. Carina Quimbo said that addressing the problem on prematurity is something that should be considered urgent by everyone, especially to parents and medical professionals.

“[We can help spread] awareness for the parents… for the mothers so they could prevent delivering prematures. At the same time, we neonatologists are working hard to make these babies survive,” Quimbo said.

She said patients should work hand in hand with the neonatologists, the allied professionals in the medical field and organizations such as PhilHealth and the DOH.

Quimbo said: “The support to these preterms is quite expensive, for the government and for the parents alike. Financially, it’s very draining.”

The Philippines is currently eighth in the world and second in Asia with the most cases of prematurity. In 1998, there are 18 newborns dying per 1,000 livebirths, but lately reduced to 13, according to the 2013 National Demographic and Health Survey.

Following the set Millennium Development Goals for 2015—with reducing child mortality as the fourth goal—the Philippines is expected to reduce deaths with a target of less than 10 newborns dying per 1,000.

With this, the DOH has been taking advantage of the funds to purchase beractant and surfactant—a treatment for respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) acquired by preterms—for 2014 and 2015.

RDS has been one of the leading causes of premature deaths and without the said commodities, Calibo said, it would be difficult for neonatologists to manage death of preterms.

However, Calibo said it does not need to be something expensive to save a preterm baby from dying.

“We are advocating hospitals to complement their understaffed neonatal units and improve hospital infection control practices like handwashing.

Breastfeeding and the “kangaroo mother care” (KMC), where the mother and the baby embrace each other for thermoregulation, should not be forgotten as simple components of intervention.

“Incubators, being so expensive, can’t be procured by the national government for the regional hospitals. But KMC can actually save newborn lives,” he said.

With people clamoring for advance technology on cardiology, surgery and cancer care, among other things, Calibo hopes that they would not turn a blind eye to “preemies” because they are also in need of investment.

“Beyond the 2015 MDG, the DOH is committed to pursue forward what needs to be done and we still have a long way to go,” he said.

Quimbo, meanwhile, said the campaign would not only focus on making the babies survive but also on looking at their state of being as well.

“These babies need a voice as each of them is already considered as one life to save,” she said.