The National Family Planning Coordinating Agency (BKKBN) says the country may not arrive at the mortality rate calculated for 2015.
The Millennium Development Goal (MDG) calculated the country's expected maternal mortality rate at 102 per 100,000 live births. The infant mortality rate was 18 per 1,000 live births.
The agency's family planning and reproductive health deputy chief, M. Basir Palu, told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday the government might be unable to ensure or lower these figures due to a health-professional shortage and a low-living standard.
The Demographic and Health Survey recorded the maternal mortality rate was 228 deaths per 100,000 live births during the period between 2004 and 2008. During the same period, the infant mortality rate was 31 deaths per 1,000 live births.
Even though Basir said the MDG figures would most likely be impossible to attain, he acknowledged maternal and infant mortality rates were declining. There were 307 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births and 35 infant deaths per 100,000 live births in the period between 2000 and 2004.
Basir also said Indonesia needed more midwives in remote areas. Out of 69,957 villages, only 30,236 have midwives.
He said more than 43 percent of villages across the country needed midwives. He recommended at least one midwife for each village.
The Health Ministry's director general for public health, Budihardja, said midwives should be evenly distributed.
Basir said the country needed more will from regional administrations to finance people's welfare, especially for maternal and infant health.
The ministry's national budget reached Rp 20 trillion (US$2.1 billion) this year, up from Rp 19.7 trillion in 2008.
Its main health priority includes increasing health standards in villages across the country, Budihardja said.
Midwife Ayu Anggaritno Proboningdyah said at a midwife development seminar Tuesday midwives were reluctant to accept posts to villages for security and financial reasons.
"Some midwives are still not classified as civil servants despite years of dedication," she said.
She also said some colleagues were paid only Rp 600,000 per month.
Indonesian Midwives Association chairwoman Harni Koesno said the Health Ministry was expected to increase midwives' monthly salaries by the end of 2009, focusing on midwives who work in villages to encourage them to provide services in rural areas.
Regarding midwife security, Ayu said, "Newly graduated midwives are mostly young, single women. Their parents are often reluctant to let their daughters live in remote areas."
Budihardja also told the Post the country's curriculum for im-proving midwives' skills needed updating to ensure highly skilled midwives. (nia)
