The provincial health office of Albay successfully carried out a medical mission to provide bilateral tubal ligation (BTL) services to mothers who have already reached their desired number of children and do not want to have 

The PHO expected 50 mothers to avail of the ligation conducted for the first quarter of the year. At the end of the three-day mission, 70 mothers have been ligated by the medical team led by Dr. Esmeraldo Illem from Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital, the maternal and newborn hospital in Manila.

Most of the mothers have more than four children and some of them were accompanied by their husbands for the procedure, which is a demonstration of shared responsibility in decision-making for planning their family.

As part of the province’s reproductive health programme, Family Planning Action Sessions (FPAS) are conducted in isolated and disadvantaged barangays (villages). FPAS is an information drive on family planning facilitated by provincial and municipal population officers, with the support of barangay health workers, community health teams and barangay nutrition scholars.

Women or couples who become interested in a particular family planning method after a FPAS are referred to a midwife, nurse or doctor for further counselling before they make the final decision to proceed with their chosen family planning method.

It was through the FPAS that the medical mission for ligation was also promoted. Mothers who have signed up for it were referred to the district hospital nearest their municipality where the free procedures were conducted. Aside from the FPAS, the ligation mission was also announced and promoted in the rural health units and public hospitals.

The BTL medical mission is part of Albay’s programme to promote family planning among couples in the province and make BTL accessible to them. The BTL programme involves a training of doctors who will provide the BTL services, as well as a post training evaluation to ensure their competency in conducting the procedure. The services will be sustained by a trained itinerant team from the province who will conduct future medical missions for ligation in other parts of the province.

(Dyezebel Dado, UNFPA Area Programme Officer for Albay)