Neonatal death rates high in W. Nusa Tenggara

JAKARTA (JP): The practice of mothers feeding their newborn babies pre-masticated rice explains why the infant mortality rate in West Nusa Tenggara is much higher than the national average, a senior physician says.

Sudarto Romotamodjo of the University of Indonesia said the habit of feeding nasi papak (pre-chewed rice) must stop if West Nusa Tenggara is to bring down the high mortality rate during the neo-natal period 28 days after birth.

In his doctoral thesis, presented at the University's School of Public Health on Wednesday, Sudarto found that the feeding practice doubles the risk of death compared with those babies who are not fed with the rice.

The feeding of nasi papak is harmful to the baby's intestines, he said.

The practice is still common on Lombok, especially in the eastern Keruak district, where he focused the study. "If the habit is eliminated, the infant mortality rate will be reduced significantly," he said.

He proposed that the government carefully and sensitively phase out the long-standing practice.

Sudarto, who graduated cum laude, was drawn to West Nusa Tenggara because it has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the nation.

According to government data from 1989, the latest available, the province registered 51.2 deaths for every 1,000 births, against the national average of 29.3 deaths. The rate in the Keruak district was 58 per 1,000 births.

Another major factor contributing to the high mortality rate in West Nusa Tenggara, according to Sudarto, is the fact that women in the province rarely bother to check with medical doctors during their pregnancies and after giving birth.

In Keruak, only 22 of 512 women who gave birth in 1992 received attention from certified medical personnel, allowing many complications to go undetected.

Many newborns are also underweight because their mothers were severely undernourished during pregnancy, he said, pointing to the high prevalence of anemia among expecting women in the area.

For reasons of tradition, the community discourages expecting women from eating crab, squid, cuttle fish, shrimp, sea fish, octopus and fruit like guava, all of which, he said, are actually good for them. (31)