NTT needs 300 midwives

NTT needs 300 midwives

KUPANG: The head of the East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) Ministry
of Health office has said that the province needs 300 more
midwives to cover 15,000 needy villages.

Bambang Purnomo told The Jakarta Post Thursday that the lack
of midwives is to blame for the high infant mortality rate, which
is 911 per 100,000 live births, far above the national rate of
450 per 100,000 live births.

People are reluctant to go to medical personnel and prefer to
consult traditional midwives, he said.

There are only 1,500 midwives serving the province's 3,4
million people, he added. (yac/ste)