A mother dies every three hours. Currently, maternal mortality is recorded at 228 per 100,000 births. This number reduced compared to that between 2002-2003, which was 307. The Government’s target in 2015 is 102.
"Maternal mortality rate is now 10,260 per year or 855 people every month or one death every three hours," said Head of the National Population and Family Planning Agency, Dr. dr. Sugiri Syarief, M.P.A, in National Seminar entitled "Health Promotion and Prevention Based on Clinical Evidence", which was held Thursday (4/3), in Auditorium of Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Gadjah Mada.
Sugiri Syarief said that the highest direct cause of maternal death is bleeding (30%), eclamption (25%), infection (12%), complications during childbed (9%), abortion and long partus (5% for each), and others (12%).
Maternal mortality rate has been far from the established target of the MDGs, that is 125 per 100,000 births. Therefore, the hard work of all government and private agencies with the community is needed. "Many people are pessimistic if Indonesia can achieve the target, but I believe that the Indonesian target can be achieved by involving people to reduce the rate," he said.
Meanwhile, the infant mortality rate in the last 5 years showed slow decline. Now, the infant mortality rate is 34 per 1000 births. According to Sugiri Sarief, the success of immunization and treatment of infectious diseases contributed greatly to the decline.
Sugiri Syarief explained that maternal and infant mortalities can be avoided with optimal birth spacing so as to reduce the risk. Family Planning is also carried out to stop having children.
Related to family planning program, Sugiri Syarief said that current Indonesia's population is 227 million people. In his opinion, if family planning program is successful, the population will grow to 237.8 million in 2015. If not, the population will grow to 264.4 million people. For the success of family planning program, said Syarief, the National Population and Family Planning Agency will prioritize to provide 23,500 clinics for family planning from 2010-2014. With the success of this program, state funds can be saved some 92 million dollars.
"I always socialize this to policy makers. It is not easy to convince them because some still think that the large population will prevent them from having economic crisis, such as those in China and India, so they think the program is useless," he said.
Meanwhile, Director of Community Health Agency, dr. R. Bambang Sardjono, M.P.H, stated that health promotion and community empowerment increased by 27% in 2005 through hygienic and healthy behavior at the household level. The number increased to 48.66 percent in 2008 and to 60 percent in 2009.
Until the year 2009, 47,111 of 70,000 Desa Siaga (prepared villages) were formed. "This proves people's participation in comprehensive health," he added.