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JAKARTA, 07 April 2005 - Knowing
the signs of high risk pregnancies and helping pregnant women
reach a nearby community health centers (puskesmas), equipped
with minimum obstetric care on time are important to ensure safe
pregnancy and childbirth.
These are the 3 most common delays - namely
the delay to know the signs of high risk pregnancy (at family
level), the delay in accessing transportation (at community level)
and the delay in receiving appropriate treatment (at health center)
– depriving a pregnant woman of the immediate care she greatly
needs.
In many parts of Indonesia, lack of public transportation
and failure to financially anticipate the need for emergency transportation
can be a serious problem that may put the pregnant women and their
(unborn) baby in a life threatening situation.
“Providing access to transportation
is needed to help pregnant women get immediate obstetric treatment
and such a transportation arrangement can save the lives of both
the mother and the baby,” said Dr. Bernard Coquelin, representative
of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Indonesia.
While citing data that in the world, every minute,
one woman dies from complications of pregnancy and childbirth,
Dr. Coquelin also emphasized the fact that access to health care
and related services is one of the 12 critical areas being highlighted
in the 10-year review of the 1995 Beijing Women International
Conference and its Platform for Action in New York recently, organized
by the Commission on the Status of Women.
Over the past five years, ending in 2005, UNFPA
Indonesia contributed at least US$1,880,000 for transportation
funds in remote villages of West Java, East Nusa Tenggara, West
Kalimantan and South Sumatra provinces.
As a part of the “Mother Friendly Movement”
to curb maternal and infant death rates, this program, called
the mini grant, allows women with high risk pregnancies and living
in small villages be transferred to a nearby referral puskesmas
or a hospital, based on the request of the village midwives.
Launched in cooperation with the Ministry of
Women Empowerment (MOWE), the mini grant program has reportedly
helped at least 1000 women with high risk pregnancies or complications
get timely maternal care.
Such a transportation fund, said Gondan Puti Retnosari from MOWE,
is indisputably needed, especially in villages where access to
transportation is difficult or where locals could not afford it.
Therefore, the benefit of this program can be directly felt by
local pregnant women and their families.
“Before such a transportation fund existed,
nothing much could be done to help women with high risk pregnancy
or with complications,” she said. “But now, the village
midwife can make a life-saving decision to help these women get
the help they need and get it on time.”
The mini grant has motivated some villages to make this fund available
and/or sustainable even after the completion of the program.
“Some villages collect Rp1,000 to Rp5,000
(around 10 - 50Cents) from each family every month to ensure the
sustainability of this mini grant, others allocate similar fund
from their budget. There are many other initiatives, involving
private sector among others and some villages managed to increase
or double or even triple the amount of the grant,” Gondan
explained.
But the impact of the mini grant goes far beyond
this. The program has fostered public awareness that as members
of the community, they too have a role in ensuring safe motherhood
for women in their respective villages and that the idea of providing
access to emergency transportation would not be optimal without
their involvement.
“In some villages, people allow their
cars or horse-drawn carts be used on certain days and at specified
hours for emergency transportation for pregnant women. They are
really helpful,” she said.
UNFPA - Maria Endah Hulupi
Media officers: mendah.unfpa@un.or.id
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