The Vital Statistics from Civil Registration of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that 92.8 percent of registered live births in Ilocos Region in 2021 were born in hospitals, while 7.2 percent were born at homes. This was 2.7 percentage points lower compared to the 95.6 percent live births born in hospitals in 2020.

Among the provinces, La Union recorded the highest percentage of registered live births born in hospitals with 99.3 percent of its 9,364 registered live births in 2021. Meanwhile, Pangasinan recorded the lowest percentage of registered live births born in hospitals at 89.6 percent of its total registered live births in 2021.

In 2021, there were 19 municipalities in the region that recorded 100 percent registered live births attended in hospitals, which accounted to 16.1 percent of the 125 total Local Government Units (LGUs) in the region. Of the 19 LGUs, Agoo (La Union) recorded the highest number of registered live births at 2,171, followed by Sinait (Ilocos Sur) at 1,077.

On the other hand, of the nine cities in Ilocos Region, Dagupan City (Pangasinan) registered the highest number of total live births for the years 2020 and 2021. Meanwhile, San Carlos City (Pangasinan) ranked second which registered 7,519 in 2020 and 6,234 in 2021. San Fernando City (La Union) ranked third in 2020 with 5,669 registered live births, and slid down to fourth in 2021 with a total of 4,741 registered live births. On the other hand, Urdaneta City (Pangasinan) ranked third in 2021 with a total of 5,105 registered live births.

On the percentage of registered live births born in hospitals, the City of San Fernando recorded the highest percentage among the cities in the region at 99.9 percent of its total registered live births in 2021. Meanwhile, during the same period, Urdaneta City recorded the lowest percentage rate of registered live births born in hospitals at 91.85 percent.

Consequently, the high percentage of registered live births in hospitals resulted to high percentage rates of registered live births attended by licensed health professionals in the region. Table 4 showed that of the 62,287 total registered live births in Ilocos Region in 2021, 93.1 percent (57,961) were attended by licensed health professionals (physician, nurse, and midwife), though slightly decreased by 2.5 percentage points compared to 95.6 percent share in 2020.

Majority (68.4%) of the total registered live births in Ilocos Region in 2021 were attended by physicians, while 14.6 percent and 10.0 percent were attended by midwives and nurses, respectively. On the other hand, 6.9 percent of the registered live births in the region were attended by hilot or unlicensed midwives.

Moreover, 94.4 percent of the 4,302 registered live births in the region attended by hilot or unlicensed midwives in 2021 were from the province of Pangasinan. Meanwhile, the provinces of Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, and La Union shared 2.4, 1.8, and 1.4 percent in the total number of registered live births attended by hilot or unlicensed midwives in the region, respectively.

SGD. ATTY. SHEILA O. DE GUZMAN, CPA
Regional Director, RSSO I