Anitapan, home to mostly indigenous peoples called Mansaka, is a remote mountainous community a few hours away from the nearest city of Tagum and is reached by passing long stretches of unpaved road. According to government officials, Anitapan is the
farthest barangay (village) of the municipality of Mabini in Compostela Valley.
For isolated communities like Anitapan, health services are difficult to reach. When the weather turns bad, the roads become unpassable and health services become even more difficult to access.
"From here, it can take two and a half hours to go to the nearest hospital in Tagum. Then if the weather condition is not good and there’s an emergency, it is a real challenge," shares Aurelia Sasutil, the barangay captain who has headed the village
for ten years.
Jasmine Edaño, Anitapan’s midwife who is a Mansaka and lives near the barangay health station, also finds it a challenge to visit the farthest areas in the barangay to reach the mothers.
"When travelling, we ride a motorcycle and sometimes we even stumble because of the muddy roads," shares the midwife.
Midwife Jasmine Edaño provides prenatal check-up to pregnant women at the birthing facility in their remote community. Photo: WHO/F. Tanggol
"The barangay was extremely lacking at that time and we were not able to give importance to our women. We were not able to give the proper health services to our pregnant women," says Sasutil.
"In 2016, the quality prenatal care in Anitapan was very low at eighteen percent," explains Arvin Ablin, the DOH representative assigned in the municipality. This means that only a small fraction of pregnant women would get a check-up from a health worker.
Sasutil realized their shortcomings for health services to women and children after she participated in a barangay health summit organized in 2016 by the World Health Organization (WHO) and supported by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA)
and the Philippine Department of Health (DOH). In this summit, the barangay officials were presented with the results of the evaluation of the health indicators on maternal and neonatal deaths.
"It was the first time in Mabini to have a barangay health summit where we called all the barangay officials. After the summit, the barangay officials realized they had a big role in the maternal and child health programmes," explains Mabini’s municipal
health officer, Dr Bernaliza Gesim.
"It was in the summit when I saw how low our scores were during the evaluation of our barangay. I was ashamed because that was when I realized how our health services needed improvements," Sasutil says.
The DOH, WHO and KOICA collaborated with the local government to help improve basic health services for maternal and child health. DOH built a birthing facility in Anitapan in 2015 while WHO and KOICA provided additional birthing equipment and maternal
and newborn health supplies in 2016.
"It is very important that we have a safe birthing facility here because of how distant our community is. We cater to those who have normal deliveries, otherwise we refer them to the Davao Regional Medical Center," explains Edaño. "Before we had
this facility, most of the pregnant women would give birth at their homes."
Midwife Jasmine Edaño (right) with Maluo Metin at Atipan’s barangay health station. Photo: WHO/F. Tanggol
If a mother goes for regular prenatal care, gives birth in a health facility and is assisted during birthing by a skilled-birth attendant, there is a lower risk of mortality for that mother and her newborn baby. With the birthing facility in place, pregnant
women like Maluo Metin, who carries her third child, do not have to go far for prenatal care and delivery.
"It’s really okay now. We have a complete facility where we can go to immediately," says Metin. "Even though our place is far, there are people who are prepared to care for us because of the facility and equipment and supplies provided here."
Also with DOH support through their human resource for health programme, Edaño has been designated as a dedicated midwife to provide health care in this far-flung community.
"We have the human resource for health which includes our nurse deployment program, our midwives that the DOH deployed in the barangays. We prioritize this to make sure that every pregnant woman will be taken care of, and provided necessary health services,"
explains Ablin.
DOH representative Arvin Ablin talks with pregnant women in one of the four areas in Compostela Valley. Photo: WHO/F. Tanggol
From the low evaluation scores of their maternal and neonatal health indicators in 2016, Anitapan is now one of the best barangays in the municipality of Mabini with improved scores in 2017. The presence of the facility and equipment, coupled with strong
support from the local government and deployment of health workers, has contributed to a dramatic improvement in maternal and neonatal health indicators.
"The quality prenatal care in Anitapan has jumped from 18 percent in 2016 to 66 percent in 2017, which is very dramatic," explains DOH representative Ablin. Aside from the prenatal care, facility-based deliveries in Anitapan have also jumped from 39 percent
in 2016 to 83 percent in 2017.
Anitapan’s barangay captain Aurelia Sasutil talks with pregnant women about their benefits from the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation. Photo: WHO/F. Tanggol
"Because of the prenatal check-ups and the presence of the facilities, we have no more maternal deaths here in Mabini in 2017," shares the municipal health officer Dr Gesim. If they see a pregnant woman who is hypertensive or diabetic, "We are able to
catch them and treat them early," Dr Gesim adds.
"The whole barangay is happy because our health indicators have been boosted. This project has been hugely beneficial because aside from the facility, supplies, and equipment, the barangay health teams could now bring pregnant women to the health centre
for quality maternal health services nearest home," says the barangay captain.