Villagers work to cut birth deaths

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Tue, 05/23/2006 1:14 PM

The United Nation Population Fund (UNFPA) took journalists on a two-day tour recently to observe the Mother Friendly Movement in Tasikmalaya regency, West Java. The Jakarta Post's Alia Asmi covered the event and filed the following report.

It does not take complex planning to reduce the number of women and infants who die unnecessarily during childbirth. All it takes is for a community to find a way to get women in labor the medical care they need.

Bugel village, located 40 kilometers from the center of Tasikmalaya regency in West Java, now helps pregnant women by providing vehicles, obstetric funds, blood transfusions and registers expectant mothers.

The village, population 5823, has recorded one maternal and nine infant deaths from childbirth since 2001, far below the national rate of about one maternal death for every 325 live births and one infant death for every 28 births.

The people of Bugel began implementing a National Family Planning Board (BKKBN) program -- the Mother-Friendly Movement -- in 1996 to control birth and mortality rates. The United Nations Population Fund started supporting the BKKBN financially in 2001, creating a temporary delivery capital scheme, which encourages villagers to set aside money to assist women in labor.

Under the programs, the villagers have found ways to quickly transport women in labor to the district health center -- located five kilometers away -- because the health center in their village, which has only one midwife and a medical aide, cannot serve most emergency cases.

With only one of the villagers, Eem Suryaman, owning a car -- a 1978 Colt pick-up used for carrying building materials to his small shop -- the ride over the hilly, unpaved roads can be a rough one.

""Sometimes people complain because they have no shelter in the back of the truck on really hot or rainy days,"" Eem said. ""Then we have to string up sarongs to provide some shelter for the patients.""

The village does not rely solely on the one vehicle and residents have roped in others to lend their horse and carts in an emergency.

Sobar, the village's medical aide, told The Jakarta Post that most villagers were willing to help women in labor because they understood the problems people faced in remote areas like theirs.

""We have informed the villagers of the need to prepare blood stocks for (transfusions in) childbirth,"" Sobar said. ""Currently we have 12 active blood donors listed.""

Unfortunately, sometimes the district health center does not have equipment available to give blood transfusions.

""When that happens I feel ashamed, because I have convinced villagers to donate their blood.""

To support the costs of safe pregnancy and childbirth, the villagers collect a fund to assist women giving birth. The fund, controlled by the village head or midwife, is used to pay for the cost of the delivery at the health center and to compensate the owner of the emergency vehicle used.

Each family donates between Rp 1,000 and Rp 5,000 to the delivery fund on monthly basis. This year, the village has collected Rp 2.4 million (US$267) for the fund.

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