MANILA, Philippines — A former overseas Filipino worker (OFW) who worked abroad for 14 years is now contributing largely to her community, earning twice more than what she earned in the past after establishing a modern birthing home under the assistance of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Dolores Batchanicha is one of the five women who benefitted from USAID’s program targeting the enhancement of technical and business skills of public and private midwives in the country.
The five Filipino women who made a difference in their provinces through the improvement of pregnancy-related services in their provinces were honored by USAID recently during the celebration of the International Women’s Day.
Batchanicha practiced midwifery at a local hospital in Davao City before she worked in Saudi Arabia for another 14 years.
From 1989 to 2002, Batchanicha spent years helping mothers give birth at the Saudi Naval Base Hospital, where she received further training under British midwives.
But soon after her three children finished school, this 59-year-old mother wasted no time and came back home to reunite with her family.
Finding no fulfillment in running their family business, Batchanicha underwent a training program of the USAID in assisting women give birth.
She said she learned about the program through her colleagues in the Integrated Midwives’ Association of the Philippines.
Funded by the USAID, her birthing home was launched in early 2006 in General Santos City, and the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) has already accredited three beds in her facility.
“It’s hard being an OFW. It’s hard to live far from your family, so when I learned about the USAID program, I immediately joined it,” she said.
Batchanicha’s birthing clinic is one of only two clinics operating in Barangay Calumpang in General Santos City.
Like Batchanicha, Corazon Paras and Olive Vergara also sought to provide comfort and quality care to mothers who are giving birth to their babies through birthing homes.
Paras successfully established a home-like birthing clinic in her province in Bohol through the help of USAID.
“It is not like a hospital, but more like a home. It is a small place that can provide quality services,” she said, describing her PhilHealth-accredited birthing home.
Meanwhile, the USAID helped midwife and birthing home owner Olive Vergara of Pampanga to secure PhilHealth accreditation.
Her birthing home has been awarded by the PhilHealth over 625 accredited health providers during the 2010 PhilHealth awards for excellence in health services.
The absence of doctors in the past was one of the main reasons there were many cases of bleeding after delivery in the town of Lamitan in Basilan.
But things changed when Virgie Cadano joined the USAID program “Caring for Mothers and Newborns in the Community (CMNC).”
Cadano was trained to practice new techniques of near-delivery labor management including the administration of Oxytocin, a drug injected to prevent post-delivery bleeding.
Cadano was also able to convince local government executives to build a birthing center in the area.
“There is a big difference when we practice the techniques that we learned from USAID. We can see that there is less bleeding and after two days, the mothers are already able to do household chores like washing their clothes,” she said.
It was learned that there are now 18 midwives who are also learning the new techniques from USAID.
She said mothers in her hometown are now more open to hire the services of a midwife when giving birth.
“In the past, they prefer the ‘hilot’ (traditional birth attendants) because they feel ashamed when midwives see their private parts. But this has changed,” she said.
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