Birth control program faces test of time<\/p>\n
Stevie Emilia, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
\"Anita\", a mother of two who has been on the pill for two and a
\nhalf years, panicked when she missed her period and thought she
\nwas pregnant.<\/p>\n
\"I thought I'd never missed taking a single pill ... but I
\nwasn't really sure,\" the 33-year-old working mother said. \"But I
\nknow, I don't want to have another child, at least not now. I was
\nso scared.\"<\/p>\n
Fortunately, a week later, what she had hoped for finally
\ncame: She got her period. \"I felt so relieved,\" Anita said.<\/p>\n
Indonesia has had a family planning program for years,
\nenjoying success with the \"Two children are enough\" campaign
\nimplemented during the 32-year rule of president Soeharto.<\/p>\n
Women are no longer forced to join the program but many,
\nparticularly educated women, still want to limit the size of
\ntheir families.<\/p>\n
But when birth control fails, couples suddenly find themselves
\nhaving to make room for additional children.<\/p>\n
Two years ago, Dewi, a housewife, was shocked to discover she
\nwas four weeks pregnant with her third child.<\/p>\n
The mother of a four-year-old girl and a two-year-old boy was
\nalready overwhelmed with her daily chores, and raising another
\nchild had not featured in her plans.<\/p>\n
\"I ran all the way up and down the stairs at home, jumping ...
\neverything ... anything to stop my pregnancy,\" said Dewi, who had
\nused the \"rhythm\" method to calculate when she was ovulating.<\/p>\n
\"I even ate pineapple, durian and drank jamu (traditional
\nherbal medicines), but all of them did not work.\"<\/p>\n
Coming from a Muslim family where abortion is out of the
\nquestion, she found herself alone in dealing with the problem,
\neven unable to tell her husband for fear it would upset him.<\/p>\n
\"I finally gave up after three months of trying,\" said the
\ngraduate of a teaching institute. She had to postpone her dream
\nof finding a job to take care of her children.<\/p>\n
With an estimated 215 million people, Indonesia -- as the
\nfourth most populous country in the world -- relies on birth
\ncontrol to prevent the population from exploding further.<\/p>\n
The number of reproductive couples aged between 15 and 49
\nyears, according to the National Family Planning Coordinating
\nBoard (BKKBN), stands at 36 million, or 16.74 percent of the
\ncountry's population. The number of reproductive-aged women who
\nuse contraceptives is only around 57.4 percent.<\/p>\n
Most women taking part in the family planning program prefer
\ninjections, followed by pills, intra-uterine devices or IUDs
\nwhile the remainder use either implants or tubectomy.<\/p>\n
However, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) says that
\nless than 2 percent of males take part in family planning in
\nIndonesia -- leaving women with the burden of using
\ncontraceptives.<\/p>\n
\"Dedi\", 33, a father of two, has no plans to start using
\ncontraceptives as he is hoping to have a third child with his
\nwife of five years.<\/p>\n
Using contraceptives is an option later -- only he has no
\nplans for them himself.<\/p>\n
\"It's usually a wife (who uses contraceptives), besides, I
\ndon't really trust condoms or even vasectomy ...\"<\/p>\n
Under the present economic climate, birth control failures are
\nhard to accept as more children means more money.<\/p>\n
But the once popular family planning program is now facing
\nserious problems.<\/p>\n
Indonesian Planned Parenthood Association (PKBI) chairman
\nAzrul Azwar said the program was suffering as it lacked political
\nsupport, had lower participation rates and did not have enough
\ncontraceptive supplies.<\/p>\n
\"Back then, all government officials would talk about was
\nfamily planning, but it's not anymore, even regents find it
\nunimportant,\" Azrul said.<\/p>\n
\"... Many family planning clinics do not have contraceptives,
\nand suggest people buy contraceptives at pharmacies on their own.
\nIn this economic climate, many cannot afford to do it.\"<\/p>\n
According to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), the country
\nexperienced a 20 percent drop in contraceptive use. Jakarta led
\nthe decline, with a 22.24 percent decrease from the 71.72 percent
\nof reproductive-aged women who used contraception in 1997.<\/p>\n
Azrul said birth control failure could be avoided by
\nundergoing permanent contraceptive procedures like a vasectomy or
\ntubectomy.<\/p>\n
Birth control failures happen for a number of reasons,
\nincluding people's preference to use temporary birth control
\nmethods that require strong discipline, the government's family
\nplanning program policy that does not encourage permanent methods
\nand poor family planning services, he said.<\/p>\n
\"But the thing that worries me most is that, many people, due
\nto economic hardship cannot get family planning services -- like
\npaying for the services, buying contraceptives or even going to
\nclinics,\" Azrul said.<\/p>\n
Facing possible birth control failures, he suggested family
\nplanning participants avoid unsafe and illegal abortions -- one
\nof many factors that contribute to the country's high maternal
\nmortality rate, currently 373 for every 1,000 births.<\/p>\n
\"But if (one) experiences birth control failure, my advice is
\naccept the unborn child ... if it's unacceptable, go to the right
\nclinic, like the one runs by the PKBI,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The PKBI, a nonprofit organization founded in 1957 to educate
\nthe public about population growth, offers comprehensive family
\nplanning services, including abortions conducted after strict
\nscreening tests.<\/p>\n
\"Couples who want to do it (abortion) must go through
\ncounseling where we can select and explore their reasons for
\ndoing it, as well as providing them with information so they are
\ngiven the opportunity and time to make up their minds,\" Dr.
\nRamona, the organization's division head of contraceptive and
\nreproduction, said.<\/p>\n
The PKBI estimates birth control failure at 3 percent of the
\n8,000 to 9,000 cases dealt with by the organization each year,
\nwith most of the failures from the pill or condoms.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/birth-control-program-faces-test-of-time-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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