DR.

FE VILLANUEVA DEL MUNDO

November 27, 1911 – August 6, 2011

EARLY LIFE
FE VILLANUEVA DEL MUNDO, born Fé Primitiva del Mundo y Villanueva, was
a Filipina pediatrician. She was born at 120 Cabildo Street in the district of Intramuros, Manila,
on November 27, 1911. She was the sixth of eight children of Bernardo del Mundo, and Paz
Villanueva. Her father was a prominent lawyer from Marinduque who served one term in the
Philippine Assembly, representing the province of Tayabas. Unfortunately, three of her eight
siblings died in infancy, while an older sister died from appendicitis at age 11. Her sister’s death
is what inspired her to be a doctor, and because her sister had made it known to her and other
people that she wanted to be a doctor for the poor.

EDUCATION
In 1926 at age 15, del Mundo enrolled at the UP College of Medicine, at the original
campus of the University of the Philippines in Manila. She earned her medical degree in 1933,
graduating as class valedictorian. She passed the medical board exam that same year, placing
third among the examinees. During her training period, she was exposed to sick and
malnourished children in the provinces, particularly in Marinduque, which led her to choose
pediatrics as her specialization.

POST GRADUATE STUDIES

The president of the Philippines then, President Manuel Quezon, offered her a full
scholarship to study any medical field of her choice at any school in the United States. She
moved to Boston in 1936 to continue her studies in pediatrics. During her time in Boston, del
Mundo undertook several positions. She stayed in Harvard until 1938 where she completed
three pediatric courses. She then took up residency training at the Billings Hospital of the
University of Chicago, before returning to Massachusetts in 1939 and completed a two-year
research fellowship at the Harvard Medical School Children's Hospital (1939-1941). She also
worked as an Assistant Physician at Boston Children’s Hospital and finally earned her Master’s
Degree in Bacteriology from Boston University School of Medicine in 1940.

Some sources say that Del Mundo was Harvard Medical School's first female medical
student. The university itself says that is inaccurate, as Harvard did not admit female medical
students at the time and there are no records of Del Mundo attending or graduating. According
to Joan Ilacqua, an archivist at Harvard's Center for the History of Medicine,

“While Dr. Del Mundo was remarkable in many ways, the evidence that she was a
medical student at Harvard Medical School is largely anecdotal and not well sourced. As far as
my research using Harvard Medical School catalogs and records shows, she earned her
Medical Degree from the University of the Philippines Manila in 1933, and in 1936, came to
Boston to further her studies in pediatrics. The fact that Harvard Medical School did not admit
women students and Dr. Del Mundo already earned her medical degree suggests that she was
not admitted as a student, even in error, and I cannot find proof that she graduated from
Harvard Medical School ... Instead, it seems more likely that she completed graduate work at
Harvard Medical School through an appointment at Boston Children’s Hospital ... del Mundo is
listed as an Assistant Physician at Boston Children’s Hospital, and a Research Fellow in
Pediatrics in 1940. Further suggesting that she was a graduate student and not a medical
student, in her autobiographical statement in Women Physicians of the World (1977), Dr. Del
Mundo explains "I spent three years of my postgraduate studies at the Children’s Hospital in
Boston and at Harvard Medical School, one year at the University of Chicago, six months at
Johns Hopkins Hospital, and short terms in various pediatric institutions, all to round out my
training."

Harvard had thousands of Asian students by the time Del Mundo arrived there.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
After studying in the United States, Fe del Mundo returned to the Philippines in 1941
during the World War II, which was then under Japanese occupation. Despite a successful
tenure in the US, she decided to work towards her dream of improving the life of the
impoverished in her hometown. She joined the International Red Cross in 1942, volunteering
for children detained at the University of Santo Tomas internment camp. To take care of these
children-internees, del Mundo stayed in UST and made a makeshift hospice within the
campus. Because of her tireless efforts and dedication in caring for her patients, she became
known as the “Angel of Santo Tomas”.

But two years after she established her hospice, the Japanese shut it down in 1943. She
was then asked by then Manila Mayor León Guinto to head a children's hospital (Manila
Children’s Hospital) under the auspices of the city government. The hospital was later
converted into a full-care medical center to cope with the mounting casualties during
the Battle of Manila, and would be renamed the North General Hospital (later, the Jose R.
Reyes Memorial Medical Center). Del Mundo would remain the hospital's director until 1948.
This would lead to her becoming the first Filipina head of a government general hospital in
1945.

In 1954, del Mundo joined the faculty of the University of Santo Tomas (then known as
Far Eastern University). She became the head of the Department of Pediatrics at Far Eastern
University - Nicanor Reyes Medical Foundation for more than two decades. At the same time,
she opened a private pediatric clinic and continued her practice.
 Frustrated by the bureaucratic constraints in working for a government hospital, del
Mundo desired to establish her own pediatric hospital. Towards that end, she sold her home and
most of her personal effects, and obtained a sizable loan from the GSIS (the Government
Service Insurance System) in order to finance the construction of her own hospital. Known as
the Children's Medical Center, a 107-bed hospital located in Quezon City, was inaugurated in
1957, the day of her birthday, as the first pediatric hospital in the Philippines. The following year,
she conferred her ownership of the hospital to a board of trustees. The hospital was expanded
in 1966 through the establishment of an institution that trains doctors and nurses, the Institute
of Maternal and Child Health , the first institution of its kind in  Asia. During this time, she also
founded the Children's Medical Center Foundation, bringing medical care to rural Filipino
families with little to no health care, saving thousands of children through establishment of family
planning clinics and treatment of preventable health issues such as poor nutrition and
dehydration.

As del Mundo had to sell her home to fund the hospital, she took up residence on the
second floor. There, she remained on active duty even well into her wheelchair-bound years.

MAJOR BREAKTHROUGHS IN MEDICINE (Research and Innovation)

While Dr. del Mundo continued to practice pediatrics at The Children’s Medical Center,
she also continued her research and was noted for her pioneering work on infectious
diseases in Philippine communities. Undeterred by the lack of well-equipped laboratories in
post-war Philippines, she unhesitatingly sent specimens or blood samples for analysis
abroad. Through the 1950s, she pursued studies on dengue fever, a common malady in the
Philippines, of which little was known at the time. Her clinical observations on dengue, and the
findings of research she later undertook on the disease are said to "have led to a fuller
understanding of dengue fever as it afflicts the young". Her breakthroughs in research
surrounding infant care led her to conceptualize a diet which consists of banana, rice, apple, tea
(BRAT) for treatment of diarrhea. Adopted worldwide and known as the BRAT diet, this diet has
saved many children from dehydration resulting from diarrhea.

Her contributions to the field of public health are immeasurable. She actively promoted
the ideas of immunization and nutrition. In 1962, she initiated a series of experiments to
determine who should be given vaccines (antibody-inducing preparations that were in short
supply at that time), and at what age. With special concerns towards rural communities, she
organized rural extension teams to advise mothers on breastfeeding and child care and
promoted the idea of linking hospitals to the community through the public immersion of
physicians and the greater integration of midwives into the medical community, considering their
more visible presence within rural communities.

She authored over a hundred several articles, reports and reviews in reputed medical
journals on rampant diseases, such as dengue, measles, polio and chickenpox. While living an
active career dedicated in promoting public health, especially in rural and poor communities, del
Mundo also wrote a textbook in 1982, the ‘Textbook of Pediatrics and Child Health’ continues
to remain the foundational textbook used in medical schools in the Philippines today.

Given the rapid increase in population, Mundo actively advocated population control and
gave information about family planning methods to her patients during her field visits.
 Dr. del Mundo revolutionized Philippine medicine, making a major breakthrough in
helping families in rural communities without electricity by the invention of the bamboo
incubator for babies suffering from jaundice in 1941. According to a biographical report on del
Mundo by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, the physician’s makeshift
incubator was composed of two native laundry baskets made of bamboo. Made of different
sizes, the baskets were “placed one inside the other.” She would then put hot water bottles all
around and between the baskets to regulate the body temperature of babies. “I put a little hood
over it and attached oxygen for the baby,” she said. “We had to do with whatever was
available.”

The Bamboo Incubator

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION (The Legacy)

She was a woman of Many Firsts
 She was the first Filipina to head a government general hospital (1945)
 The first Filipina to be certified by the American Board of Pediatrics as Board Diplomate
(1947)
 The founder and first president of the Philippine Medical Women’s Association (1949-
1954)
 The first female president of the Philippine Pediatric Society (1952-1955)
 Founded the first pediatric hospital in the Philippines, then Children Medical Center, and
now Fe Del Mundo Medical Center
 Credited with studies that lead to the invention of the first incubator and jaundice-relieving
device.
 The first Filipina and first Asian elected president of the Medical Women’s International
Association (1962-1966)
 The first female president of the Philippine Medical Association (1969-1970)
 The first Filipina National Scientist (1980)
 The first director of Lungsod ng Kabataan Children’s Hospital (1980-1985)

Among the international honors bestowed on del Mundo was the Elizabeth Blackwell
Award for Outstanding Service to Mankind , as a “Woman Doctor of World Renown” handed in
1966 by Hobart and William Smith Colleges, and the citation as Outstanding Pediatrician and
Humanitarian by the International Pediatric Association at the 15 th International Congress of
Pediatrics in 1977. Also in 1977, she has been honored with Ramon Magsaysay Award for
Outstanding Public Service.
 Dr. Fe del Mundo was an honorary member of the American Pediatric Society and a
consultant of the World Health Organization. In 2008, she received the Blessed Teresa of
Calcutta Award of the AY Foundation.

On April 22, 2010, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo awarded del Mundo the Order of
Lakandula with the rank of Bayani , as a Filipina who lived a life “worthy of emulation” at
the Malacañan Palace.

Posthumously, she was conferred the Grand Collar of the Order of the Golden Heart Award
by President Benigno Aquino III in 2011.

THE LEGACY
Dr. Fe Villanueva del Mundo was a pediatrician, author and humanitarian. She was still
active in her medical practice into her 90s, her pioneering work in pediatrics spanned eight
decades. She died on August 6, 2011, after suffering cardiac arrest, just months shy of her
100th birthday. She was 99. She was buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
Medicine in the Philippines was revolutionized by Dr. Fe del Mundo. She made numerous
breakthroughs in the field of pediatrics from immunization, treatment of jaundice, and providing
accessible health care to countless families living in poverty. A committed humanitarian, del
Mundo dedicated her life to the health of the world’s children.

Dr. del Mundo's accomplishments are still remembered years after her death. The hospital
she founded is still open and now bears her name, the Fe Del Mundo Medical Center.

In honor of her 107th birthday, Google dedicated its Google Doodle of the day to del Mundo
in November 27, 2018.

“I’m glad that I have been very much involved in the care of children, and that I have been
relevant to them,” says Filipina physician Fe del Mundo. “They are the most outstanding feature
in my life.”
 Dr. Fe Villanueva del Mundo was a committed humanitarian, pediatrician, administrator,
educator, researcher, author, public health advocate, whose pioneering spirit in fostering
health and preventing sickness particularly among children helped not only in reducing infant
morbidity and mortality in the country but also in establishing health, research, and
educational institutions. She was a symbol of female empowerment in medicine, both in the
Philippines and abroad. She actively provided medical care during one of the worst times to
be a female doctor in the Philippines. She built her own hospital – the first of its kind in the
Philippines. She didn’t let inadequate resources stop her from bringing medical care to rural
communities. She made history as the Philippines’ first female National Scientist.
Beyond these accolades, Dr. del Mundo shall forever be remembered for according due
importance to the medical needs of children and indigents, and to the role of medical
professionals in the greater community. She put a human face to the practice of medicine, and
opened doors for generations of Filipino women in the medical fields.

Upon knowing of the accomplishments of this remarkable Filipino, I couldn’t help but be
filled with admiration and respect. There are simply not enough words to describe how much of
an impact Dr. del Mundo’s works has affected the medical community, not only here in the
Philippines, but in the whole world as well and I cannot help but feel a deep sense of pride as a
fellow Filipino. I honestly hope that there will be more of Dr. del Mundos who unrelentlessly
pushed through hardships to develop medical breakthroughs in medicine. I think this paved the
way to an opportunity for the youth to see “their endless possibilities”.

THE FUTURE OF NEONATAL INCUBATOR

Artificial Womb. An incubator that will be able to grow babies for nine months in your
living room. Concept Incubators that will grow your babies at home. The advantages are huge.
Nine (9) months of time that a woman could continue working, taking proper medication, being
less health paranoid, etc. Another major advantage is that they could be used by infertile people
to have kids without involving a human surrogate mother. It may be both positive or negative
depending on how you look at it, but what if a woman were raped and conceived. What if it were
possible, instead of aborting the pregnancy, to place the fetus in an artificial womb and give it up
for adoption. Would this be abused? How would people react? Disadvantages are also endless.
It may be abused, they may be used for purposely breeding fetuses for unethical use, to supply
donor organs, which later will become a profit making industry.

Let’s just hope the advantages outweighs the risks. Goodluck to AW.