Jakarta – While Mother's Day is traditionally a time for rejoicing and love, the Women's Health Foundation (YKP) is using this year to focus on the nation's high maternal mortality rate.
"The YPK commemorates this Mothers' Day with a solemn reminder that our maternal mortality rate remains high, at 310 per 100,000 births in 2005, compared to 390 in 1994," YPK chairwoman Tini Hadad told a media gathering on Wednesday.
"It is the highest maternal mortality rate in ASEAN, which is truly appalling and embarrassing. We have yet to see the government show a sincere interest and concerted effort in handling the matter, such as amending the health law."
Deputy chairwoman Zumrotin Soesilo added that within the past 11 years, Indonesia's maternal death rate had decreased by just 80 people. Zumrotin said that the country would most likely fail in meeting the fifth point of the UN Millennium Development Goals of reducing the maternal mortality ratio by three quarters by 2015.
"We only have another eight years to raise the bar from 80 to 125 and this will not be possible unless women's health becomes a nation-wide priority because improving women's well-being is no longer an option, but a necessity," she said.
Tuti Indarsih Loekman Soetrisno, a legislator on the House of Representatives Commission IX overseeing health, labor and population affairs, said an overhaul of the current health system was needed.
"Our health system, especially pertaining to safe motherhood, should focus on educational and preventive measures like advocating immunization and pap smears, instead of curative ones which are more expensive," she said.
"We will need to also increase our spending budget for health from the current 2.6 percent to 5-6 percent, as suggested by the World Health Organization."
Tini said a demographic survey of health in Indonesia had revealed that every half-hour a woman died due to pregnancy and labor complications or post-natal difficulties. The majority of these mortality cases, YKP member Kartono Mohamad added, were due to hemorrhaging.
"The three main causes of maternal death so far have been hemorrhage, which can occur during pregnancy, during delivery or after birth, eclampsia (seizures during pregnancy) and infections," he told The Jakarta Post.
"All these are avoidable. Firstly, through poverty alleviation, secondly by proper education, and thirdly through government assistance in the form of medical services that actually reach women prior to them experiencing any complications."
He further highlighted the adverse effects of poverty on the health of women, particularly those from low-income backgrounds. Nearly all maternal deaths in Indonesia take place among the poorest of the poor.
Kartono, a senior doctor, added that government interventions such as the Suami Siaga (Alert Husband), Desa Siaga (Alert Village), and Gerakan Sayang Ibu (Loving Mothers Movement) campaigns were largely "empty rhetoric".
"The weakness of any government initiative is the lack of an evaluation. They just send out midwives to the villages and launch these programs without a feedback mechanism in place to see whether the programs are actually effective," he said. (amr)