THE city government-run JR Borja General Hospital and 40 certified clinics and birthing facilities here assisted 4,023 expectant mothers who gave birth in the past five months this year—an average of 30 childbirths daily.
Dr. Lorraine J. Neri who heads the local health office here, reported in a media briefing on Friday, that the number of normal deliveries went up 47 percent in May with 425 childbirths, over a five-month average of 289 deliveries.
“We succeeded in our campaign to decongest Northern Mindanao Medical Center which is a regional Covid-19 referral hospital,” said Dr. Nery, even as she advised all those in gestation period to avail of free prenatal consultations to ensure normal labor.
Nery also recalled that before the Covid-19 pandemic, even expectant mothers go to NMMC for obstetric and gynecological services when such are available for free at the JRBGH, and even at the city health office-supervised barangay health centers.
Since March, when the NMMC started admitting patients to its emerging and re-emerging infectious disease isolation facility, local health officials here have repeatedly advised the general public to avail of public health services at the city hospital and its health units.
For several years now, the JRBGH, though known as city hospital and yet it has been accepting patients outside, particularly those from Misamis Oriental and Bukidnon.
In that briefing, the bar-graph that was flashed on TV screen showed there were 1,584 women gave birth in privately-owned lying-ins and community-based health clinics, as of May 31 from January this year.
At the JRBGH in the last five months, those who gave birth every month were: May (488), April (419), March (490), February (482), and January (560)—or a monthly average of 488 with cumulative total of 2,439. (Uriel C. Quilinguing)
