RI's maternal mortality rate still high

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto expressed concern yesterday over Indonesia's maternal mortality rate, which is the highest among ASEAN countries, and called for a concerted campaign to reduce it.

A total of 390 out of 100,000 women die in labor annually here, he pointed out. "The maternal mortality rate is not determined by women's health status alone. It's also influenced by their level of education and lifestyle," Soeharto said when opening a workshop on the campaign against maternal mortality.

Soeharto said that both the government and the community have already taken various steps to curb the rate. He pointed to the posting of at least one midwife to each of Indonesia's more than 60,000 villages as an example.

The government has also established integrated health centers in almost all villages, where mothers can get health tips and toddlers are given meal supplements, for the same purpose.

"Apparently, all of these efforts are not yet enough. We need to make even more concerted efforts, which also involve various activities in the community's life," he told a gathering which included Minister of Social Services Inten Soeweno and Minister of Population Haryono Suyono.

Without a rapid decrease in the maternal mortality rate, women's progress cannot be considered whole, he said. "Without this whole progress of women, our efforts to improve the quality of our human resources are not whole either," Soeharto said.

He then called on government officials to improve coordination among them in fighting maternal mortality, especially in remote and poor areas.

Also yesterday, Minister of Women's Roles Mien Sugandhi said the workshop is aimed at establishing guidelines and effective methods for the campaign to reduce the maternal mortality rate.

She said that while the rate in 1994 was 425 per 100,000 births, it is expected to drop to 225 per 100,000 by the end of 1999. (swe)