Ensuring Safe Births Amidst the Tragedy of Yolanda

It has been a year since typhoon Yolanda’s devastation but Dr. Lilia Daguinod, chief of the Felipe Abrigo Memorial Hospital in Guiuan, Eastern Samar, will never forget the images of days that followed.

“Aside from pregnant women who were in labor when the typhoon came, there were other hospital patients, particularly those who came from other towns, that I needed to move to my residence,” she says. The pregnant women included two who gave birth in her house.

The challenge was enormous as Dr. Daguinod was not only addressing the patients’ medical condition, she also had to ensure that there was enough food for them at that time when everything was scarce, even if people had the money to buy them.

“On the third day, through the support of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, we were able to set up a medical tent at the Rural Health Unit to ensure that we will have a facility for safe deliveries despite the situation,” she recalls. “Since then, we had at least one childbirth everyday in the tent.”

Luckily, there were medical supplies and medicines from UNFPA that were prepositioned at the Provincial Health Office. These were immediately distributed to different health facilities in the province.

In the weeks that followed, more support from UNFPA came in the form of medical equipment, supplies and medicines, as well as training for health service providers – all with the objective of supporting health facilities to deliver maternal care services.

One of the recipients of the assistance was the health center in Barangay Betaog in the municipality of Lawaan. The health center, which was totally destroyed by the typhoon, received a delivery table, recovery bed, examination light, and power generator set.