TACLOBAN CITY—Medical teams organized by UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, have started delivering reproductive health services to expecting and nursing mothers in evacuation centres for those displaced by super typhoon Yolanda.

The reproductive health medical missions on November 26 went to the two largest centres in this devastated city, at the Tacloban City Convention Center and the Jose Rizal Central School, where five to 10 families are living in each classroom without electricity or water.

Forty-four pregnant women and 33 breastfeeding mothers were tested for vital signs, given a gynecological consultation and a test for reproductive tract infections. Two energetic health educators led group sessions covering topics including hygiene, HIV prevention, family planning and healthy pregnancies. Each woman received a dignity kit with toiletries and other essential supplies for female hygiene.

On November 28, the Tacloban team went to two more sites serving another 14 evacuation centres.

UNFPA has recruited local specialists for the missions. The team has two obstetricians, a pediatrician, four nurses, three midwives, a medical technician and a mental health expert. Ten youth volunteers located the clients and helped set up the service sites.

Dr. Donna Montero, a pediatrician in private practice, was gratified to be part of the team. “This is the first medical mission after the typhoon to give priority to pregnant women and women who have just given birth, a very vulnerable population.”

She said most of the women she examined seemed in good spirits despite their ordeal during the storm and their current hardship. “Filipinos are a resilient people,” she stated.

Lovely Paredes, a 21-year-old mother of two, eight months pregnant, was smiling after getting the dignity kit and a prenatal the exam. “I am so happy to learn my baby is OK, with a normal heart beat,” she said. But she worries she might not be able to get to a birthing centre to deliver, as she has a four-year-old daughter with special needs and can’t leave her alone.

The mission on November 28 was at a wrecked school complex, in a room that was used as an evacuation site during the typhoon. After the roof blew off, the terrified evacuees had to climb to the rafters to escape the storm surge.

Evelyn Capones, 18, came with her 17-month-old daughter. Her family lives in a tiny space in a classroom shared with four other families. She too is expecting and was also glad to get health care and advice, but following the team’s instructions will be a challenge. Even though they lost everything when their home was washed away, her family receives only limited food relief. “I will take the vitamins they gave me. They said I should eat fresh vegetables but we can’t afford to,” she said.

While all of this city’s medical facilities here were heavily damaged by the typhoon’s fierce winds and tidal surge, a number that have reopened are now able to provide safe delivery services, including three that can provide Caesarean sections.

There are some 230,000 pregnant women among the estimated 13 million people affected by the typhoon known internationally as Haiyan. Nearly 900 are giving birth each day, with around 130 likely to experience potentially life-threatening complications.

UNFPA’s medical missions are being coordinated with national and local health and social welfare agencies.  More missions will take place next week near Roxas City and in Eastern Samar.

In Tacloban, UNFPA is also distributing clean delivery kits and other reproductive health supplies to NGO and government partners. Staff are currently helping assess maternal health needs in the heavily damaged towns south of the city, and the Fund is planning to establish a safe delivery facilities in Palo.

And as part of its effort to ensure the safety of women and girls, UNFPA has set up women-friendly spaces in several evacuation centres, and is working with the national police to strengthen protocols for preventing and responding to gender-based violence.

UNFPA works to deliver a world where every birth is safe, every pregnancy is wanted and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.

For more information, contact:

In Manila

William A. Ryan, Mobile +63 926 618 5483 or +66 89 897 6984, ryanw@unfpa.org

Arlene Calaguian Alano, Tel: +63 2 901 0306, alano@unfpa.org

In New York:

Omar Gharzeddine; Tel.: +1 212 297 5028; gharzeddine@unfpa.org