Campaign to reduce mortality rates launched

Campaign to reduce mortality rates launched

JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in
cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO) launched on
Thursday a campaign called "Make Pregnancy Safer" to reduce the
country's high maternal and infant mortality rates.

"As a developing country, it is a fact that our infant
mortality rate is still very high, an average of 300 deaths per
100,000 live births," Minister of Health and Social Welfare
Achmad Sujudi said on the sidelines of a visit to a community
health center in the Tebet Timur district in South Jakarta.

"With this program, we hope to reduce the infant mortality
rate to about 100 deaths per 100,000 live births within the next
five years," Achmad said.

Achmad was accompanied on the visit by WHO director general
Gro Harlem Brundtland, who was in Indonesia to introduce a new
commitment to the ongoing world scheme on the Safe Motherhood
Initiative.

"With this 'Make Pregnancy Safer' program, we're promoting
three main points: that every pregnancy must be wanted (by the
mother), that every birth process must be handled by a trained
medical practitioner and that every complication should get
immediate treatment," the minister said.

In Indonesia, there is an average of five million pregnancies
per year with around 18,000 to 20,000 deaths due to complications
during pregnancy and labor.

"Four out of 10 babies' deaths take place during the first
week of life. This is very concerning," Achmad said.

The program to increase people's awareness on the issue will
start at the community level, involving local community health
centers (Puskesmas) and integrated health service posts
(Posyandu), he said.

"But our main problem is the budget. We have a very limited
fund for some 240,000 Posyandu nationwide. We can only give Rp
1.1 million to every Posyandu per year.

"Due to the very limited funding, many Posyandu are no longer
functional," Achmad said.

Head of the Jakarta office of the Ministry of Health and
Social Welfare Deddy Ruswendi said about 20 percent of the city's
4,000 Posyandu had been forced to stop operating during the
economic crisis.

"Ideally, some 100 to 200 babies are handled by one Posyandu.
So, in Jakarta, we should have 10,000 Posyandu," Deddy said.

Posyandu are convenient for children and mothers, a key factor
essential for improving the quality of their health, he said.

"Posyandu can function as health training centers and provide
services for mothers and their children. That's why we strive to
gain more funds to finance them," Deddy said.

The latest WHO data shows that every year about 500,000 women
die due to complications during pregnancy and labor worldwide.
Most of the deaths occur in developing countries.

The data also shows that some 3.8 million babies die during
labor every year, while about three million babies die during the
first week of life.

The ministry, through health posts in subdistricts, also gave
training on reproductive safety, sanitary and health aspects to
midwives and other traditional medical practitioners. (edt)