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AKARTA: The National Demographic and Family Planning Agency (BKKBN) alongside DKT Indonesia, a US-based contraceptives social marketing company, signed an agreement on Monday to better promote the use of contraceptives to curb the maternal death rate in the country.

“Indonesia still has a quite high number of maternal deaths caused by postpartum bleeding and unsafe abortions,” BKKBN chief Sugiri Syarief said after the signing on Monday, which coincided with World Contraceptive Day.

According to the 2007 Indonesia Health and Demographic Survey (SDKI), about 9 million women — 9.1 percent of all Indonesian women — faced unwanted pregnancies.

“In this regard, family planning programs become important because unwanted pregnancies can trigger unsafe abortions. We reduce the chances of unwanted pregnancies by becoming an active family planning acceptor,” Sugiri said, adding that in Indonesia almost 80 percent of women with more than five children had not yet used contraceptives despite wishing to become acceptors.

This year’s World Contraceptive Day was celebrated with the theme, “Your Right to Accurate and Balanced Information”.

“This theme was chosen to help young couples make informed choices on their sexual and reproductive health, including in using contraceptives,” said Todd Callahan, DKT Indonesia Country Director.

He said that under its KB Andalan Program, DKT Indonesia would support the government in promoting long-term and permanent contraceptives such as tubectomies, vasectomies and intrauterine devices (IUD).