Low awareness of contraceptives plagues 3 RP provinces
abs-cbnnews.com | 07/11/2008 2:30 PM
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By DAVID DIZON
abs-cbnNEWS.com
The lack of a national policy on artificial family planning has led to inconsistent levels of awareness of contraceptives in the countryside, with three provinces registering only two percent awareness, a recent study commissioned by the Department of Health (DOH) reveals.
The study showed that aside from knowledge of birth control pills and injectables, only two percent of women in Samar, Surigao del Sur and Sorsogon are aware of other artificial family planning methods such as diaphragms, implants and condoms.
The study interviewed 1,200 women and 350 health care providers in the three provinces from June 2007 to March 2008. The baseline survey was conducted by the UP Center for Economic Policy Research for the DOH Women's Health and Safe Motherhood Project.
The survey showed the pill remains the contraceptive of choice for women in the three provinces. It showed that 57 percent of women in Samar, 42 percent in Surigao del Sur and 32 percent in Sorsogon used the pill. On the other hand, 21 percent of women in Samar used injectables compared to 15 percent in Sorsogon and Surigao del Sur.
It showed that eight percent of women in Surigao del Sur had ligation compared to six percent in Samar and five percent in Sorsogon.
Zenaida Dy Recidoro, chief health program officer of the DOH Safe Motherhood Program, said the low awareness of other family planning methods could be a reflection of the region's cultural or religious beliefs.
"In general, Bicol region, which includes Sorsogon, is really against contraceptives but it’s softened somewhat. When it’s family planning, we’re not good performers. The USAID program was in the country for 30 years giving us free contraceptives but utilization is very low," she told abs-cbnNEWS.com.
Recidoro said culture and religious beliefs play an important role in the promotion of artificial family planning methods in the countryside. She said some local government officials openly oppose the promotion of contraceptives because it is against Catholic teaching.
She said some doctors in the three provinces also do not believe in artificial family planning methods but only promote scientific natural family planning. Ironically, she said, some schools in the three provinces also do not teach family planning.
Recidoro said Sorsogon and Surigao del Sur were chosen by the DOH as pilot sites of its Safe Motherhood Project because of their low contraceptive prevalence rate and high maternal and infant mortality rates.
"We said the project would have maternal and newborn care and family planning, which includes advocating artificial methods especially among men and women of all reproductive age groups. We are not just advocating natural family planning. This is the program," she said.
Lack of national policy
Benjamin de Leon, president of the Forum for Family Planning and Development, says the low awareness in contraceptives in the countryside is reflective of an even bigger problem: the lack of a national policy on artificial family planning methods.
De Leon, a former official of the Commission on Population, says that while the DOH is supposedly promoting all forms of family planning methods, there is very little effort to promote artificial family planning methods compared to the campaign of Health Secretary Juan Flavier during the mid 90s.
"The problem with not having a national policy on artificial family planning is that there is no national leadership. There has to be political will coming from above to ensure that LGU execs will follow. That is the dimension that is lacking right now," he told abs-cbnNEWS.com.
In a separate intervew, Health Secretary Francisco Duque said the DOH is concentrating on promoting scientific natural family planning nationwide while leaving it up to local government units to form their own policies on promoting artificial family planning methods.
He admitted said that since the Philippines is primarily a Catholic country, the DOH is committed to promoting family planning methods "that abide by Catholic teaching."
He added that natural family planning is a safe and inexpensive way to lower the population growth rate. According to the 2007 National Census, the Philippine population is already at 88.57 million as of August last year.
De Leon says the DOH stance could be seen as an extension of former Manila Mayor Lito Atienza's executive order, which banned both the sale and the dissemination of information on contraceptives in Manila for nine years.
"Kawawa kasi ang poorest of the poor. They are the ones who really need the information and services and they are deprived. In Manila, contraceptives were banned so that couples who wanted to practice artificial family planning were unable to do it. Even worse, it also denied access to information on contraceptives," he said.
Availability
The DOH study backs a previous study done by the University of the Philippines Population Institute (UPPI) and the Alan Guttmacher Institute, an international NGO that focuses on sexual and reproductive rights worldwide.
The study showed that four in 10 married Filipino women (45%) had an unmet need for effective contraception in 2003. This meant that the women did not want a child in the next two years or did not want any more children but still became pregnant because they used only traditional family planning methods or did not use artificial contraceptive methods.
One problem that is aggravating low contraceptive use in the three provinces could be lack of supply.
The DOH baseline survey showed that 64 percent of health facilities in Surigao del Sur reported lack of supply of pills while 62 percent reported lack of injectables during the survey period. Sixty-one percent also reported having stock-outs of intra-uterine devices during the period.
In the other provinces, 57 percent of health facilities in Samar reported stock-outs of pills and injectables while 51 percent reported lack of supply of IUDs. Health facilities in Sorsogon also reported absence of supply of pills (52%), injectables (26%) and IUDs (22%).
Recidoro said the DOH study is meant to improve the quality of medical care services in the countryside including availability of family planning methods.
De Leon said distribution has been a perennial problem of the DOH because of the geographical challenges posed by some regions. However, he said distance should not be an excuse for the government to stop the distribution of much needed contraceptives in poor areas.
"We have to keep couples informed and keep the services available," he said.
He said one bright spot in Congress was the inclusion of a P180 million budget for family planning in the 2007 General Appropriations Act.
"I am proud that the government has appropriated a budget for family planning. It only shows that the government is not begging from USAID to provide us with contraceptives. Family planning is important right now because we could hit 100 million population by 2018. There is going to be an imbalance on population and resources for as long as we are not able to contain the growth rate of our present population," he said.
