Osmeña orders closure of CCMC’s OB-Gyne ward

By Doris C. Bongcac, Chris Ligan

Cebu Daily News First Posted 07:01:00 02/10/2007 Filed Under: Local authorities,
Hospitals & Clinics

THE OB-Gynecology department of the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) has stopped
offering child birth services since Feb. 5 as ordered by Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña.

However, a staff of the city-ran hospital, who requested anonymity, said they were still
forced to accommodate “high-risk” patients, who were about to give birth and could no
longer be referred to other hospitals.

On normal days, the 25-bed maternity ward located at the hospital's 3rd floor was always
filled beyond its capacity as well as the 17-bed maternity ward on the fourth floor.

Yesterday, the hospital only had four admissions for child birth.

“We already refused to accept cases that can still be referred to other hospitals. Other
patients have also ceased coming to us after they heard media reports about the mayor's
announcement to dissolve the OB-Gynecology department,” the staff said.

Child birth, Osmeña said, can be accommodated in the health centers.

The mayor said he wanted to expand the operations of the satellite hospitals in the
mountain barangays like the one in Guba to address the needs of the residents there.

The city government will also help high risk patients like those who needed to undergo
Caesarean Section operation, he said.

Instead of spending much on child birth, Osmeña wanted to expand CCMC's Emergency
Room services.

Other planned changes would be in the procurement of medicines and adjustment in the
hospital management.

“One big fallacy is that the hospital should be headed by a doctor. A hospital has to be
headed by a manager. Someone who is good in cost accounting, inventory control and
cash flow analysis,” Osmeña said.

While Dr. Myrna Go remains hospital administrator, Osmeña said he wanted members of
the Mayor's Management Team (MMT) to help her.

Osmeña raised the possibility of buying imported medicines and said that he will be
sending the MMT to study the procurement process of the Local Government Units of
Bukidnon and Capiz, which he wanted to imitate.
Paternal factors and low birthweight, preterm, and small for
gestational age births: a systematic review
A gestational-age birth in relation to paternal factors was performed. Medline, Embase,
Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature, and bibliographies of
identified articles were searched for English-language studies. Study qualities were
assessed according to a predefined checklist. Thirty-six studies of low-to-moderate risk of
bias were reviewed for various paternal factors: age, height, weight, birthweight,
occupation, education, and alcohol use. Extreme paternal age was associated with higher
risk for LBW. Among infants who were born to tall fathers, birthweight was
approximately 125-150 g higher compared with infants who were born to short fathers.
Paternal LBW was associated with lower birthweight of the offspring. In conclusion,
paternal characteristics including age, height, and birthweight are associated with LBW.
Paternal occupational exposure and low levels of education may be associated with
LBW; however, further studies are needed.
Pregnancy: a “teachable moment” for weight control and
obesity prevention

Received 17 December 2008; received in revised form 5 March 2009;

accepted 1 June 2009. published online 17 August 2009.

Excessive gestational weight gain has been shown to relate to high-

postpartum weight retention and the development of overweight and
obesity later in life. Because many women are concerned about the
health of their babies during pregnancy and are in frequent contact
with their healthcare providers, pregnancy may be an especially
powerful “teachable moment” for the promotion of healthy eating and
physical activity behaviors among women. Initial research suggests
that helping women gain the recommended amount during pregnancy
through healthy eating and physical activity could make a major
contribution to the prevention of postpartum weight retention.
However, more randomized controlled trials with larger sample sizes
are needed to identify the most effective and disseminable
intervention. Providers have the potential to prevent high postpartum
weight retention and future obesity by monitoring weight gain during
pregnancy and giving appropriate advice about recommended
amounts of gestational weight gain.
Increased risk of low birthweight, infants small for
gestational age, and preterm delivery for women with peptic
ulcer
Received 24 March 2009; received in revised form 21 June 2009; accepted 24
September 2009.

Objective

The objective of the study was to determine whether maternal peptic

ulcer disease (PUD) is associated with increased risk of adverse
pregnancy outcomes, using a nationwide population-based dataset.

Study Design

We identified a total of 2120 women who gave birth from 2001 to 2003
with a diagnosis of PUD during pregnancy. Then 10,600 unaffected
pregnant women were matched with cases in age and year of delivery.
Multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed for
estimation.

Results

We found that PUD was independently associated with a 1.18-fold risk

of low birthweight (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.01–1.30), a 1.20-fold
risk of preterm delivery (95% CI, 1.02–1.41), and a 1.25-fold (95% CI,
1.11–1.41) higher risk of babies small for gestational age, compared
with unaffected mothers, after adjusting for potential confounders. In
further examining women with treated PUD, improved effects of PUD
medication on the risks of adverse neonate outcomes were not
identified.

Conclusion

We document increased risk of adverse birth outcomes for women with

PUD during pregnancy.