BY GLENDA TAYONA AND TED ALDWIN ONG
In tough times when most community leaders were gripped with uncertainty, two women did something that many would never think about doing.
They were village head Mary Joy Salpin of Barangay Bolilao, Mandurriao, Iloilo City and licensed midwife Kathy Catubac. They risked their lives to provide essential services to pregnant women in the time of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
BARANGAY TAILORED A STRATEGY FOR PREGNANT WOMEN
Barangay Bolilao was not spared when coronavirus disease exploded into a global pandemic. Surgical lockdowns were enforced here and there to slow down the contagion.
According to Salpin, the virus restrictions brought unprecedented challenges in the management of expectant mothers who needed to get prenatal checkups, health guidance and those on critical stage of giving birth.
Among the strategies that local officials adopted was the communication services among pregnant women who were dependent to the barangay’s health center.
Salpin said a telemedicine was devised since midwives and health workers have to perform multiple tasks apart from delivering health services and enforcing compliance to health protocols.
“Midwives carry mobile phones so that calls from pregnant women can be entertained and addressed as they arise,” said Salpin.
The effort was proven helpful for work hours during lockdown period which prevented the midwife from being physically present at the health center.
In addition, pregnant women who were on the last trimester of pregnancy were also subjected to a set of mandatory health protocols like swabbing two weeks before their scheduled admission to the delivery room. Hence, the midwife and barangay health team also adopted facilitation effort for pregnant women so they could undergo a swab test at the Jubilee Hall, a designated Temporary Treatment and Monitoring Facility of the Iloilo City Government.
“If we receive a COVID-19 positive swab test result, they are directed to undergo mandatory isolation at the designated quarantine facility. If the result is negative, we hand the result to them so they could bring it to the hospital where they want to give birth, or to a private birthing clinic similar to the one that is present in our barangay – CFC Birthing Clinic,” Salpin said.
The circumstances, however, was not as simple as that at all times. According to Salpin, there were challenging moments such as the handling of pregnant women who failed to undergo a swab test before her date of delivery.
“During the height of the pandemic, no hospitals or lying-in centers were willing to accommodate them without a swab test result,” Salpin said.
Having the experience of handling a laboring pregnant raised Salpin’s awareness during these life and death situations.
“As a barangay captain, you have to make moral decisions that are, otherwise, risky to preserve a person’s life,” she said.
Preserving a life for Salpin means she has to find a way so that a pregnant resident due for delivery can be accepted in a lying-in clinic.
“In most instances, I have to tap the assistance of either friends or other officials from other barangays. I personally accompany our pregnant women to ensure that they give birth safely and I have witnessed the goodness of God and how his grace and mercy works in mysterious ways. Miraculously, their swab test likewise revealed a negative result after,” Salpin said.
PARTNERSHIP WITH A COMMUNITY-BASED HEALTH FACILITY
Barangay Bolilao occupies a significant position among Iloilo City’s 180 barangays for it hosts a big portion of the city’s new business district. The barangay is surrounded by big malls, hotels, restaurants, and commercial establishments making its location convenient and a center of nightlife before the pandemic.
It has a high density population with boarding houses, apartments, and dormitories who provide dwellings for transient workers who are coming in from different provinces outside the city.
From July to December last year, it logged a total of 93 confirmed COVID-19 cases mostly involving boarders. In September, it was placed by the city government under a surgical lockdown together with 28 other barangays across the city because of the surge of local transmission.
Surgical lockdowns made handling of pregnant women tougher for the barangay officials and health workers and it tested its system of service delivery. Ahead of the pandemic, however, the barangay has already established partnership with a community-based health facility like the CFC Birthing Clinic.
“Our partnership and linkage resulted to a smooth complementary health service delivery to pregnant women,” said Kathy Catubac, owner and operator of CFC Birthing Clinic.
Barangay health workers and pregnant women beneficiaries were one in describing CFC Birthing Clinic as a facility who offered side-by-side or dual support service to the barangay health center, giving free prenatal check up to women on their seventh month of pregnancy, among others.
The CFC Birthing Center started operations in September 2013 with the help of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Integrated Midwives Association of the Philippines. It is an accredited health facility by the Department of Health and by Philippine Health Insurance Corp.
The privately-operated community-based health facility played a crucial role among pregnant women who opted not to give birth in a hospital because of the pandemic.
“For as long as there were no potential complications relative to giving birth, we offer an option of delivery at the birthing clinic,” stated Catubac, a registered and professional midwife.
Among free support services provided by the birthing clinic to the indigent constituents of the barangay are prenatal checkup, family planning orientation and advice on adolescent and maternal health care.
Catubac also echoed the concern shared by Salpin about denying pregnant women birthing services it needed under the period of COVID-19 due to failure to secure a swab test result.
“We cannot just stand up and watch our women become part of a statistic of maternal death or allow its infant reduced to mortality rate,” said Catubac.
What Catubac have shared revealed the dilemma confronted by many midwives at the height of coronavirus lockdown last year. It also described the dual risk the global pandemic posed on the lives of pregnant women and on service providers like CFC Birthing Clinic.
“I am thankful to God for the guidance and grace for we did not encounter major problems as a result of accepting walk-in clients. Giving the type of service demanded by the circumstances offered a mix feelings of challenge and fulfilment,” Catubac underscored.
BRINGING FAMILY PLANNING AT EVERY DOORSTEP
Another critical service for women that the two barangay leaders initiated during the lockdown was a program called “Family Planning on Wheels”.
The program was also spearheaded by Salpin and Catubac this time in partnership with the Iloilo City Population Office and the Barangay Service Point Officer (BSPO) assigned in Bolilao.
They launched Family Planning on Wheels in November 2020 to educate residents about prevention of early pregnancy and on how to use different family planning methods through a rekorida or ambulant public address system.
The program also involves answering direct queries from residents regarding family planning issues and to counsel minors on adolescent health.
Around last quarter last year, Barangay Bolilao also received a set technical intervention such as training of Barangay Health Response Team as well as contract tracers on, among others, infection and prevention control from a non-government organization together with 26 pilot barangays.
The barangay is also among the recipient of a hand washing facility for the barangay health center and hygiene supplies, such as; gloves, facemasks, alcohol, handwashing soap and IEC materials, which were helpful for public education in their bid to prevent further local transmission./PN
