Text by: Angelou C. Mendoza
Photo by: Joseph Bautista

Members of the International Committee on Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Handbook, speakers of the MCH “Safe Beginnings” Conference, and distinguished attendees pose for a photo holding copies of the published handbook.

As one of the strongest advocates of universal healthcare for Filipinos through the eight-point action agenda of the Department of Health (DOH), the University of the Philippines Manila (UPM) partnered with the International Committee on Maternal and Child Health Handbook in the conduct of “Safe Beginnings: 1st Regional Conference on Maternal and Child Health (MCH) in CALABARZON in partnership with the 14th International Conference on the MCH Handbook” held on the May 9 and 10, 2024 at the Lime Resort Manila. 

The collaboration is the brainchild of Dr. Calvin S. Delos Reyes, Associate Professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences of the UPM College of Arts and Sciences and Board Member of the MCH, through the guidance of Dr. Mario Philip R. Festin, Founding Director of the Institute of Reproductive Health, National Institutes of Health (NIH), who spoke on the topic “Improving Reproductive Health by Enhancing Antenatal Care Services” on the second day of the event. 

“Reproductive health includes the processes related to a man and a woman and their sexual needs, in order to plan and get pregnant in a timely manner, having a baby grow inside the womb, avoid complications, and problems during this pregnancy to deliver safely and to return the woman into a healthy non-pregnant state,” said Dr. Festin.

The event was instrumentalized into a platform that promotes the development and utilization of the MCH Handbook in the country and highlights the importance of educating the mother about safe and healthy pregnancy to childbirth until adulthood of the infant. The conference was attended by various specialists from all over the world and other stakeholders from different countries, showing their utmost support to the delivery of MCH. 

Dr. Mario Philip R. Festin on the second day of the MCH Conference discussing “Improve Reproductive Health by Enhancing Antenatal Care Services.”

He emphasized the significance of quality antenatal care or prenatal care in reducing complications during pregnancy until delivery, preventing stillbirths or baby’s death which occurs before or during delivery and perinatal mortality. Dr. Festin also mentioned the role of the MCH Handbook as a monitoring tool and record of all the information of the infant which will be useful until adulthood.

Formalizing the Linkage

A day before the conference, UP Manila and MCH signed a Memorandum of Understanding on May 8, 2024.

“I pledge the full support of the University of the Philippines, through our Department of Pediatrics, our Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, our National Institutes of Health which has the Institutes for Child Health and Human Development, and the newly formed Institute of Reproductive Health. These four institutions will be your partners to create policies for them. But in addition to that, I will not forget the value of Humanities and Behavioral Sciences. That’s why we have here the College of Arts and Sciences to make all our medical policies really suitable in a sense because they are formed with behavior, social sciences in mind,” UP Manila Chancellor Michael L. Tee said to Dr. Yasuhide Nakamura, MCH Committee Chair.

The linkage emphasizes UP Manila’s openness to the community and willingness to collaborate through its specialists sharing their respective expertise with other institutions and organizations. This partnership will further promote academic learning, training, research, and consultancy works and explore the possible collaboration on academic and research projects. #