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Jakarta Post

Clinic helps women with pregnancies

Two women sat restlessly in the waiting room of a Denpasar's clinic run by the local chapter of the Indonesia Planned Parenthood Association (PKBI) on Wednesday

Luh De Suriyani (The Jakarta Post)
Denpasar
Fri, April 3, 2009

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Clinic helps women with pregnancies

T

wo women sat restlessly in the waiting room of a Denpasar's clinic run by the local chapter of the Indonesia Planned Parenthood Association (PKBI) on Wednesday. Their faces were a gloomy reflection of the difficult problems they faced.

Ni Wayan Armini, 42, was accompanied by her husband, but Ni Ketut Murdati, 37, waited for her counseling session alone.

"I don't want to have another baby. I am only a construction laborer and my two children have already grown up now," Murdati said.

A resident of Kerobokan in Badung, Murdati was surprised, shocked even, when she first learned she was pregnant. The last time she was pregnant was 15 years ago; both her children are now in senior high school.

As the morning sickness and other tell tale signs appeared, Murdati struggled to fulfill her duties as a laborer. "It's very difficult to lift a bucket of sand when you are constantly on the verge of vomiting," she said.

Murdati is not unfamiliar with birth control. She used to use contraception pills but stopped when pimples began to appear as a side effect.

Armini was similarly dissatisfied with the side effects of the Intra Uterine Device (IUD) she had used for 10 years.

"The device caused prolonged stomach pains so I started using pills," she said.

"Taking pills had its own drawbacks so I haven't been using any birth control method for four years."

Naturally, without birth control, Armini eventually got pregnant.

"I don't want to have another child because now I am a Pemangku (temple priest) with so many religious obligations," she said.

"I hope somebody helps me *take care of this problem* because I don't want to drink traditional herbal concoctions *to terminate the pregnancy* nor seek the help of traditional healer *to carry out an abortion*."

The counselors Armini and Murdiati were waiting to see will help the women identify the most appropriate solution to their unplanned pregnancy.

If the women decide that they do not want the baby, the counselor decides whether or not the women qualify for the clinic's menstrual regulation service.

"There is a widespread misconception that this procedure equates to abortion, an act deemed taboo by our community," director of the Bali PKBI Ketut Sukanatha said.

"In fact, what we offer here is a comprehensive service to maintain one of a woman's reproductive rights, namely the right to not have a child."

He said that the state must protect women's sexual and reproductive rights.

"*We* must be committed to protecting the women by promoting the use of birth control devices," he stressed.

"Logically, we are also responsible for providing alternative solutions when the use of such devices fails to protect the women's rights or creates unnecessary pain or problems for them."

However, both Armini and Murdati admitted that it was very difficult for them to locate institutions willing to provide them with solutions for their unplanned pregnancies.

"When the birth control device failed how come no institution was ready to assist us? I think no woman would want to experience this kind of problem," Armini said.

"My husband doesn't want to use any birth control devices so I will have to use an IUD again."

In 2008, the clinic carried out 675 menstrual regulation procedures on women with unplanned pregnancies.

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