The Philippines has the highest fertility rate of 2.9 (number of children per woman) among the member-states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a United Nations Population Fund report showed.
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Based on UNFPA’s 2018 State of the World Population Report, 57 for every 1,000 births recorded from 2006 to 2015 were adolescent births, with mothers aged 15 to 19 years old.
At least 73 percent of the births recorded in 2006 to 2016 were attended by a skilled health personnel while the maternal mortality ratio (deaths per 100,000 live births) in 2015 stood at 114.
The report also showed that the prevalence rate for contraceptives of any kind for women aged 15 to 49 years old was at 56 percent.
In an interview with GMA News Online, UNFPA country representative Iori Kato said while the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012 was a triumph, its full implementation should be ensured.
“It’s one thing to have a law, it’s another thing how to implement the law. Implementation needs to be done with the resources, both financial and human resources. We in UNFPA look forward to continue to work with the government for the full implementation of the law,” he said.
While the UNFPA findings placed the country’s fertility rate at 2.9, a 2017 National Demographic and Health Survey which was also released yesterday showed the number went down to 2.7 last year.
In the same survey 75 percent or three in four women 15 to 49 years old wanted to plan their families to have only two children.
The drop in fertility in the country was being attributed to the increase in the use of modern family planning methods by over 40 percent of currently married women who have shifted from traditional FP methods, the government survey showed.
Commission on Population Executive Director Juan Antonio Perez III said the government should now prioritize permanent and long-term family planning methods in the coming years.
Permanent methods include bilateral tubal ligation for women and no-scalpel vasectomy for men. Long-term methods are IUDs and progestin subdermal implants.