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Low-income pregnant women still frequent midwives
Betty, 25, delivered a cute baby girl last week, and she and her husband are so excited about being new parents
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Betty, 25, delivered a cute baby girl last week, and she and her husband are so excited about being new parents.
"The midwife helped me deliver the baby. She was so gentle and nice, helping me to be brave and strong," she told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
Betty said she chose to have a midwife help her deliver the baby because the midwife's clinic was close to her house and she had gone for prenatal checkups there.
"The clinic is small but nice and the price is affordable. I think the place is even better than maternity hospitals."
Like Betty, many women in Jakarta still employ midwives, although the city has many obstetricians. The greater expense is the main reason why they are reluctant to visit obstetricians.
Betty, whose husband works as a private employee for a small salary, said she only paid Rp 60,000 (US$5) for every checkup.
"Obstetrician fees are usually more than Rp 150,000," she said.
The financial consideration was also the reason she opted to give birth at the midwife's clinic rather than at a hospital.
"The hospital fee is almost Rp 5 million. It is expensive. In the clinic, I just paid Rp 1.4 million," Betty said, adding that the price included medicine, services and a bed.
Winda, 27, another new mother, said she would prefer to deliver her baby with a midwife's help rather than going to an obstetrician.
"But unfortunately I am a high-risk mother because I have a heart problem, so I had to visit an obstetrician like my midwife suggested," Winda said.
Although women with low incomes still trust midwives, the profession is losing ground because women from middle and high-income levels prefer the care of obstetricians.
"Usually pregnant women from low-income families decide to have prenatal checkups with midwives," Sumiharti Soetrisno, a midwife from Pasar Rebo, East Jakarta, told the Post in a recent interview.
She said she worked at a private hospital in Jakarta where only 20 babies were delivered by midwives this year.
"The rest of the births were assisted by obstetricians," Sumiharti said.
Sumiharti runs a small health clinic at her house. She often receives patients from her neighborhood. Usually patients pay Rp 20,000 rupiah for their prenatal checkups.
Sumiharti also helps women give birth at her small clinic, which contains two single beds. She charges only Rp 500,000 for services and medicine.
"The number of patients coming to me has slightly decreased lately," she said.
Widya, a midwife from Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta, has had a similar experiences. She said that most of her patients had changed their minds about visiting midwives.
"Probably the obstetrician has modern equipment like ultrasonography, the thing that we don't have" she said.
Harni Koesno, National Midwife Association chairwoman, said there was actually no competition between midwives and obstetricians.
"We have our different tasks to do," she explained.
She pointed out that obstetricians helped with high-risk childbirths, which midwives could not manage.
According to the association, Indonesia has 104,000 midwives.
Besides providing prenatal checkups, midwives often help mothers manage medical complaints like diarrhea, colds and throat infections.
For many women they are also the easiest place to access information about HIV/AIDS.
"I even take my children to my midwife when they have colds, because they give me medicine for free and my children get better," said Riri, the mother of three.
Both Widya and Sumiharti get patients suffering from a variety of minor illnesses.
"Actually it is forbidden for us to treat other medical conditions, but we try to help them with simple over-the-counter medicines," Sumiharti said.(naf)
