KORONADAL CITY, South Cotabato (PIA) -- The Department of Health-Center for Health Development (DOH-CHD) in the Soccsksargen region has initiated a pregnancy tracking system (PTS) that digitizes the paper-based ledger used to monitor pregnant women, especially those considered to have high-risk pregnancies.

Dr. Melva Magana, maternal program medical supervisor, said the web-based pregnancy tracking system developed by DOH-CHD is the first in the Philippines and aims at attaining much lower, if not zero, maternal mortality incidents.

"On the whole, we don't want any mother to die while giving birth or any family to be motherless," Magana said in a press conference on Monday, March 11.

Safe Motherhood Program manager Lea Grace Yonting said the system was developed as the result of a maternal mortality review.

"Marami sa deaths sa ating mga nanay na-high risk, preventable naman 'yong kanilang cause of death sana kung na-refer early or na-manage or na-detect early. Ang nangyari late ang mga referrals," Yonting said, referring to the review outcomes.

[Many of the deaths among our mothers are considered high-risk, which should be preventable if only referred, managed, or detected early. What happened is that the referrals came in late.]

The review prompted Dr. Sulpicio Henry Legaspi Jr., formerly the assistant regional director of DOH Region XII and now the regional director of Region X, to push for the creation of a high-risk pregnancy referral and reporting system.

The high-risk pregnancy referral and reporting system was launched in January and is currently being operationalized in local government units across the region.

Barangay health stations have started registering pregnant women in the system and have already started referring patients to provincial hospitals, the Cotabato Regional and Medical Center (CRMC) in Cotabato City, and other health facilities enrolled in the system.

Midwives, nurses, and other health staff in birthing homes have also been trained in Basic Emergency Obstetrics Care (BEmOC) and the use of the electronic pregnancy tracking system.

According to Magana, the web-based tracking system is anchored on the traditional monitoring system for pregnant women and uses the same vital information required to track the progress and assess the conditions of the mothers and their unborn children. Laboratory results are also uploaded into a mother's file.

In situations where a receiving facility is not enrolled in pregnancy tracking or when the facility is not connected to the internet, the system is also capable of printing pregnancy monitoring forms that may be handed over during referrals.

Using the system, birthing homes may refer a high-risk pregnant mother needing immediate attention to a hospital where she can be managed by an obstetrician.

Upon referral, the computer unit at the receiving health facility will emit noise to signal an incoming patient.

This notification signal won't stop until the referral is accepted, Magana said.

"The beauty of this system is that the OB or the doctor who is on duty can already view the mother's history and why she is being referred," she explained.

In the event that no health professional is available at the receiving hospital, the same referral may be redirected to another health facility, thereby ensuring that high-risk pregnant women are managed on time.

Pregnant women are considered "high risk" when they are 19 years old or younger; 35 years old or older; bearing 5th or higher number of children; and those with medical conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, heart ailments, and others, Magana further emphasized.

Apart from generating monitoring ledgers of mothers, DOH’s pregnancy tracking system is able to automatically predict such information as the estimated date of confinement and age of gestation of the child, as well as generate databases such as a list of low- and high-risk mothers, the number of mothers referred, and others necessary for analysis.

The DOH in the region is currently working on making the pregnancy tracking system into a mobile application. 

In the same press conference, Magana and Yonting disclosed that Soccsksargen Region is among the five regions in the Philippines with the lowest maternal mortality incidents, registering only 34 maternal fatalities in 2022 and 27 in 2023.

These figures, they emphasized, indicate that Soccsksargen's maternal mortality ratio is much lower than the national ceiling of 70 deaths per 100,000 live births.

They attributed the success to the measures being implemented at the barangay level to encourage pregnant mothers to undergo at least four prenatal and two postpartum checkups and to give birth in health facilities attended by health professionals.

Local governments in the region have also been supportive of the maternal care programs and activities by passing policies such as penalizing “hilot” and mothers who give birth at home and providing facilities like halfway houses where would-be mothers can stay while waiting for the day of child delivery, the resource speakers added. (DED - PIA Region 12)