Completing a Community-Initiated Birthing Facility

Sitio Gawasan is three to four hours on foot to the Barangay Bentangan Health Center. Roads are rough and access is only via walking or a bumpy ride on a motorcycle through wide, unpaved roads at times made soft and muddy by the rains.

The Arumanens, the indigenous peoples of Gawasan, have always aspired for a culture-sensitive birthing facility. Tribal Chieftain Timuey Elino Pendaupan recalled how more than a year ago, tribal elders along with Dr Noel Espallardo, Senior Specialist on Reproductive Health and other representatives of the EU-funded IP MNCHN Project Mindanao from NCIP and UNFPA, talked about having a birthing facility in Sitio Gawasan.

Through the efforts of the community, it materialized this year, providing the Arumanens an alternative to home delivery, and spared Aileen the three hour hike to the village health center.

When a structure in the sitio – a remnant of a government project – was turned over to them, local leaders of Gawasan assigned it as the birthing facility and health center.

With the blessing of tribal elders, the action and resources of the local community, and the guidance of their midwife, they improved the structure, put up walls, and repaired faucets and fixtures. Emily Baluan, also an Arumanen and the midwife deployed by the Department of Health, helped design the bamboo delivery bed.

Baluan relayed that the first woman to deliver at the birthing facility did so even without medical equipment at that time. UNFPA Field Coordinator Jose Salopesa added that women are willing go to the health facility if it is accessible and available to them.

Through the IP MNCHN project, UNFPA, in-charge of the project’s reproductive health interventions, provided the medical equipment and medicines on September 17, 2014. This was the project’s counterpart.

“Ang saya saya po namin kasi ngayon may gagamitin na kami dito sa center (We are very happy because now we have something to use here at the center),” expressed Araceli Cawag, Community Health Team trainer and president of Sitio Gawasan Women’s Association.

About 70 women, children and men looked on as community members unpacked the large boxes in front of their birthing facility. The boxes revealed an examination bed, delivery bed, infant weighing scale, midwifery kits, oxygen unit and family planning commodities, among others.

By the community, for the community

Because it was initiated by the Arumanens, it is a facility surely sensitive to their needs and culture.

Timuey Elino relayed that for any problem during childbirth, they would usually do a ritual for the mother and the baby. The family is welcome to do the rituals outside the birthing facility.

Baluan also narrated that one time, a traditional birth attendant came with the expectant mother. “Women’s support systems especially their families are welcome here,” she said.

With new equipment, the facility now provides women an option to give birth on a “native” delivery bed made of bamboo, or on a “standard” delivery bed.

The Indigenous Peoples Maternal Neonatal and Child Health and Nutrition (IP MNCHN) project is funded by the European Union. It is implemented by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples and jointly managed by UNFPA.

During the turnover, UNFPA IP MNCHN Project Manager Dr. Cemellie Bernadette Sabay iterated that it is the community’s health center and birthing facility, and encouraged them to utilize the equipment and services.

Aileen doesn’t want a big family. She said she will be using family planning methods when the time comes. She will be going to the health center for her baby’s immunizations.

With a birthing facility in the sitio and more equipment and supplies, the road to better health has been paved for Aileen, her daughter and all Arumanen women, men and children in Gawasan.

The Indigenous Peoples Maternal Neonatal and Child Health and Nutrition (IP MNCHN) project is funded by the European Union. It is implemented by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples and jointly managed by UNFPA.