Govt to lower maternal mortality rate
Govt to lower maternal mortality rate
JAKARTA (JP): The government plans to launch a massive campaign to reduce the high incidence of death among expectant and new mothers, which Minister of Health Sujudi says is chiefly the result of ignorance.
Sujudi said yesterday that the government hopes to reduce the maternal mortality rate to 225 per 100,000 births by 1999, as compared with the 1994 level of 421 per 100,000 births.
"Currently 75 women die during pregnancy or delivery each day," he said in opening a one-day seminar titled Concrete Steps to Ensuring a Healthy Mother and Baby, held in connection with National Women's Day and International Health Day.
He said the high maternal mortality rate affects the quality of human resources in Indonesia, which, in turn, is detrimental for the country as a whole, given the increasingly competitive world.
"We need qualified human resources to compete with other countries in the future," Sujudi said.
The seminar, held at the health ministry, was attended by more than 100 people. Participants included housewives, activists, government officials and religious leaders. The seminar was moderated by Zumrotin of the Indonesian Consumers Foundation and Kartono Mohamad of the Indonesian Planned Parenthood Association.
Sujudi said the chief cause of Indonesia's high maternal mortality rate is undernutrition among pregnant women. This occurs through a combination of ignorance and sociocultural, economic and geographical difficulties.
He noted that in many poor Indonesian families women eat last, even if they are pregnant.
"A wife prepares the food for her husband, children and in- laws. She will eat what is left after they have all had their share. No wonder her nutrition level is very low," Sujudi said.
The situation is unacceptable and should change, he said, adding that women's nutrition is just as important, if not more important, than that of the rest of the family.
Sujudi said that to bring about change, the government is launching a campaign to increase people's awareness that they have to take care of pregnant women and their health.
The minister, a doctor by profession, said he recognized the need to improve prenatal and postnatal medical services.
On Saturday, Gulardi Wiknjosastro, a senior lecturer at the University of Indonesia's School of Medicine, said that Indonesia's 196 million people are served by only 800 gynecologists, most of whom practice in major urban centers.
Gulardi said the high maternal mortality rate could be reduced if the country had more gynecologists, whose services are crucial in cases of complications during pregnancy. General practitioners and midwives, he said, could not take the place of gynecologists.
Sujudi said the government is also striving to cut the infant mortality rate to 5,000 per 100,000 births by the end of the decade from 5,800 per 100,000 births at present.
The minister said that success in the ongoing immunization campaigns, such as the anti-polio drive, are expected to help the government reach its target. (31)