Indonesia’s Midwives Crucial to Women’s Reproductive Health Care
|
| |
After having lost everything in the tsunami, Bunda, a mother in Aceh, Indonesia, looks cheerfully to her child as her future hope. Source: © 2005 CCP, Courtesy of Photoshare |
With 204,000 midwives in Indonesia playing a crucial role in caring for the reproductive health (RH) of women and providing family planning (FP), the USAID-funded Bidan Delima Program, operated by the Indonesian Midwives Association (IBI) is working to raise the professionalism and increase the skills of these crucial, grassroots health practitioners, while boosting demand for these improved services.
Found in almost every village in Indonesia, the much-trusted midwives attend to the vast majority of FP needs of Indonesians, attend some 50 percent of births, and provide the majority of antenatal and newborn care. They are key to improving FP services and RH at the village and community levels.
The USAID-funded Sustaining Technical Achievements in Reproductive Health and Family Planning (STARH) program and IBI have been providing the training and support the midwives need. By developing quality improvement and certification processes for midwives who join Bidan Delima, they have instituted a system of rigorous evaluation, including counseling practices for safe delivery and FP. Now efforts are focused on attracting still more outstanding women into the program, extending the good health they provide throughout the country.
Read more on USAID’s family planning work in Indonesia
Related Links
|
