DSWD: Baby Blaire’s parents may need counselling

DSWD (Photo courtesy: https://article.wn.com)

THE social welfare department is ready to offer counseling for the parents of “baby Blaire”, the second baby who surfaced as a newborn whose mouth was taped to hold a pacifier in place while she was in the nursery of the Cebu Puericulture Center and Maternity House.

Jenneth Aquino of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) – 7 said the parents may need psycho-social intervention like parents of baby Yohannes, whose Facebook photos of their son with his taped mouth became viral.

“With this intervention, we will be able to determine what assistance they may need and can help them link to agencies,” said Aquino.

Aquino said the intervention will “allow parents to have an outlet to release tension, anger, fear and doubts” that ongoing proceedings may bring, she said.

The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) 7 can conduct a separate investigation into the second case if baby Blaire’s parents file a complaint with their office.

“We require an affidavit or complaint. We will furnish a copy to the maternity hospital for them to make a counter-affidavit. And if the parents will not be contented with the reply, we will investigate it,” said Dante Jadman, CHR-7 lawyer.

However, baby Blaire’s 22-year-old mother was unsure of doing more than posting photos of her baby on Facebook and telling her story in the media. She said she has to discuss her next steps with the baby’s father first.

The CHR said the other case of baby Yohannes Noval, whose parents attended two hearings of an inter-agency panel, is ready for resolution. The panel scrapped plans to visit the hospital nursery after the parents Ryan Noval and Janice Badocdoc said on Tuesday that they would file a case in court and already had testimonies and material evidence.

Department of Health (DOH)-7 Regional Director Jaime Bernadas said he sent a report on the Noval case to their central office for decision. If violations are found, the issue of ethical practice will be referred to the Philippine Nurses Association (PNA) and Professional Regulations Commission (PRC), she said.

Acting Cebu City Mayor Edgar Labella said an “honest” answer from hospital administrators would help “appease” the babies’ parents and Cebuanos.

Labella wrote to Dr. Raida Varona, the hospital’s medical director, to clarify the hospital’s nursery protocol and procedures.

“In the interest of transparency, I would like to request a clear and categorical statement from you on whether or not, absent written protocols, procedures and policies, it is a common hospital practice for Cebu Maternity House nurses to tape with plaster infants’ mouths to hold in place their pacifiers,” Labella said in his May 27-letter.

He said that with the medical director’s reply, “we city officials… can help appease the growing uproar and course the incident to the proper government agencies for appropriate action.”

He said he thought it was an isolated incident until the mother of a second infant, baby Blaire, came out in Facebook and news reports.

“It would be disheartening if and when the local government cannot address a simple issue that needs only one honest answer,” Labella said .