Jakarta – Eight-year-old Thira, whose younger brother Rama died a day after being born in September, commemorated Mother's Day on Friday by taking to the street to call the government's attention to maternal and child health.
Thira was standing quietly among adult demonstrators from NGOs concerned with maternal and child health, in front of the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Central Jakarta. She held a poster printed with Rama's picture and name.
Her mother, Rika, 38, told reporters Rama passed away in a private hospital in Jakarta, which blamed the death on lung failure.
"A day after I gave birth, the doctor suddenly told me Rama had developed problems with his lungs. We took him immediately to another hospital, but it was too late already," she said.
When she asked for an explanation from the hospital where she had given birth to Rama, she was left confused by the medical jargon, she said. She then consulted the Legal Aid Institution for Health Affairs, which helped her file a police report against the hospital for malpractice.
Mother's Day, which is meant to be marked with joyful celebrations and expressions of love and respect from children towards their mothers, has frequently been upstaged by maternal tragedies.
Data from the Indonesian Pediatrician Association places the national infant mortality rate at 36 per 1,000 births in 2005, while figures from the Women's Health Foundation put the number at 31 deaths per 1,000 births that year.
One of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals is to reduce infant mortality rate by two-thirds and maternal mortality rate by three-quarters by 2015. Critics in Indonesia have said such targets would be hard to achieve as the government seemed little concerned with improving the health of mothers and children.
Heriyana, executive director for the Mother and Baby Care Institution, an NGO participating in Friday's rally, said 58.1 percent of maternal mortalities were preventable, as in the case of hemorrhaging and eclampsia (seizures during pregnancy).
"Given that the causes (of death) are within preventive action, the government should be able to do better in reducing the maternal mortality rate," she said.
In a related development, the Indonesian Muslim Students Action Front (KAMMI) pressed ahead with demands the government provide affordable and proper reproductive health care information and facilities. In a statement issued Friday, KAMMI said the lack of affordable health care centers was to blame for the high maternal mortality rate.
Tuti Indarsih Loekman Soetrisno, a legislator for the House of Representatives Commission IX overseeing health affairs, said Wednesday the government would have to increase funding for health from the current 2.6 percent of its budget to the 5-6 percent suggested by the World Health Organization in order to reach its target. (lln)