Live births in the region mostly attended by physicians

• Ilocos Region registered a total of 4,686 births in February 2021.
• There were 3,786 total registered live births that were attended by medical practitioners, who may either be a physician, a nurse, or a midwife
• Physicians topped the list of attendants at birth with 3,215 registered live births
• Midwives attended to 552 registered live births in the region while nurses only attended to 19 registered live births.

La Union: Highest percentage of birth deliveries attended by health professionals

• La Union had the highest percentage of birth deliveries attended by health professionals with 86 percent of the total registered live births in the province.
• Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte followed with 84 and 83 percent, respectively. Pangasinan followed with 78 percent.
• Of the total 3,786 registered live births that were attended by medical practitioners in the region, Pangasinan had the most registered live births attended by medical practitioners with 61 percent (2,312 live births).
• La Union followed with 15 percent (569 live births) then Ilocos Sur with 13 percent  (486 live births) and lastly, Ilocos Norte with 11 percent (419 live births).  

Less than nine hundred births attended at birth by unlicensed midwives 

• There were 894 registered live births in the region in February 2021 who were attended at birth by unlicensed midwives.  
• Pangasinan had 633 registered live births (21 percent) attended at birth by unlicensed midwives in the province.
• Ilocos Norte registered 82 live births attended at birth by unlicensed midwives.   This is 16 percent of the total registered live births in the province.
• Ilocos Sur registered 89 live births (15 percent)  who were attended by unlicensed midwives.
• La Union had 90 registered live births (14 percent) attended by unlicensed midwives in February 2021.

Number of teenage mothers reached four hundred

• The registered live births in the region were mostly born to parents aged 25 to 29 years old. The highest proportion of fathers and mother belonged to age group 25 to 29 years (25 percent and 26 percent, respectively).
• The region registered a total of 411 live births born to mothers under 20 years of age.   
• The region also noted 136 fathers who are under twenty years old.
• The median age of mothers was 28 years old.  This means that half the number  of mothers was younger than 28 years old and half was older than 28 years old
• The median age of fathers was 31 years old.   

More than half of live births in the region were registered illegitimate

• More than half (57 percent) or 2,689 of the total registered live births in February 2021 were born illegitimate.  
• Mothers belonging in the age group 20 to 24 recorded the highest number of illegitimate children with 812 births (30 percent). It was followed by age group 

25 to 29 with 639 births (24 percent). 

• Meanwhile, mothers at age group 25 to 29 recorded the highest number of legitimate children with 591 births (30 percent), followed by age group of 30 to 34 with 535 births (27 percent), and age group 35 to 39 with 343 births (17 percent).

SGD. ATTY. SHEILA O. DE GUZMAN