USAID Safe Mothers Program in Indonesia

The poor state of maternal health has spurred Maternal Life International- a non-profit organization based in Montana- to direct their efforts for better maternal and neonatal healthcare at Haiti. Their objective is to build family health offices in the country to assist pregnant women and newborns.

The Republic of Indonesia is a land full of many different cultures, ethnicities and beliefs. It consists of five large islands, and thousands of smaller islands, of which six thousand are inhabited (“Indonesia”, 2016). Indonesia is a little over nine thousand miles away from the United States, and with all that distance comes some distinct differences in lifestyle, beliefs, and social norms. As a nurse working in the healthcare field, it is our responsibility to be respectful of other people’s beliefs and values and to encourage diversity, even with our patients. Allowing our patients to continue their normal routines as much as possible and to feel comfortable decreases stress, which enables healing. It is hard to be respectful of another’s beliefs without first having an accurate data base of information about said person’s beliefs. This essay outlines detailed information about several different aspects of Indonesian culture including; family patterns, communication, space and time, nutritional patterns, health beliefs and practices, spiritual practices, and biological variations.

Taylor, Y. J., & Nies, M. A. (2012, June 23). Measuring the impact and outcomes of maternal child health federal programs. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 17(5), 886-896.

I believe as a Midwifery Student at Australian Catholic University (ACU) that childbirth is a natural life process. Within my philosophy, my aim is to provide a women-centred care based on evidence- based practice. Also the importance of supporting women with cultural variation, social circumstance and understanding other specific needs throughout the woman’s pregnancy. The women-centred care is an essential quality to a midwife as it ensure that the women is educated in healthy lifestyle choices within pregnancy, childbirth and during parenthood. This relationship of “women-centred care” is the key to midwifery practices as Australian College of Midwives (2009) refers to the philosophy of maternity care that promotes a holistic approach by recognising each women’s social, emotional, physical, spiritual and cultural needs. In retrospect, it is important to reflect on your past experiences during your midwifery practice but also your life beyond midwifery.

For example, in the summer of 2015, the Non-profit supported a coalition in Nicaragua that brought partners expertise in strategic ligation and media/communication expertise to further raise the awareness of early pregnancies and safe abortions. Furthermore, Planned Parenthood Global also advocates for sound U.S. foreign policies that improve the sexual and reproductive health and well-being of individuals and families globally (Planned Parenthood,

Maternal mortality represents more than the loss of lives for individual women, as it also reflects the larger value and prioritization of women 's health and threatens the health and survival of families, young children, and even the communities in which they live (Royston and Armstrong, 1989). Maternal mortality is unacceptably high (WHO, 2015b). Globally, approximately 830 women die every day from pregnancy- or childbirth-related complications (ibid.). The causes of maternal mortality are predominately preventable and can be classified into three fundamental causes: (1) medical - consisting of direct medical problems and pre-existent/coexistent medical problems that are aggravated by pregnancy, (2) underlying - social and legal conditions, and (3) health systems laws and policies that address availability, accessibility, and quality of reproductive health services (PHP et al, 2011).

One of the main interest groups that help brings support and attention to ICWA is the National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA). NICWA is a private, nonprofit, membership organization based in Portland, Oregon (www.nicwa.org). The members the represent this organization includes tribes, individuals, both Indian and non-Indian. This is a private organizations that provides help around the United States that is concerned with American Indian child and family issues, which partners, board and staff, of the American Indian people helps protect the most vital resource of the culture which includes the children.

Watson and Mason’s article, “Power of the first Hour” and Risworth, et al.’s article “I was on the way to the Hospital but I Delivered in the Bush” both focus on aspects of maternal and infant care and demonstrate the fundamental differences between western policies enacted to improve women’s lives in developing countries and the local realty in those developing countries.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is an international organization present in 190 countries (Unicef, n.d.). It is an agency focused on the area of maternal and child health. Recently, the organization is providing fresh water and food for mothers and children, education for mothers and girls, and immunization programs for children (Unicef, n.d.). The advantages for this program are the benefits to the education and health of the women and children, but the disadvantages are ability to retrieve funds all the time, and providing care to everyone. They have to have a focused topic, like they do, in order to start to care for the population. There are many issues in the third world countries that go beyond the abilities of one organization,

Economic growth has much improved the infant mortality rate though better healthcare facilities and living conditions. Japan has fallen to one of the world’s lowest infant mortality levels at 3.6 per 1,000 live births in 2006 (Saigusa, 2006). Infant mortality is largely affected by the health of the mother, which makes pre-natal health imperative in keeping infant mortality rates low. Since Japan offers health care to all, access to prenatal care is easier to get therefore making mothers healthier and help in finding complications earlier in the pregnancy.

Our mission at Mid-South Women’s Health Center is to be beneficial to the needs of women services which include maternal care to preventive health for all ages and life stages.

Centre for Maternal and Child Enquiries (CMACE) (2011) Saving mothers’ lives; reviewing maternal deaths to make motherhood safer: 2006-2008. BJOG 18(1): 1-203. London. Blackwell Synergy.

In 2013, 289 000 women died during pregnancy and childbirth and it was estimated that everyday 800 women all over the world died from childbirth or childbirth-related problems (World Health Organization, 2014). Often, maternal mortality is found to occur more often in developing countries than developed countries. Maternal mortality refers women who died from the situation like during pregnancy, termination of pregnancy within 42 days, regardless of duration and place of pregnancy, from aggravation caused by the pregnancy or pregnancy management (Nwagha et al, 2010). Maternal mortality may be resulted from direct or indirect cause. Direct causes are from obstetric complications of pregnancy, labour, and puerperium, and interventions whereas indirect causes are from the worsening of current conditions by pregnancy or delivery (Givewell, 2009). This paper aims to examine the causes for maternal mortality in both developed and developing countries and will end with a proposal for government to ensure women are given reproductive health rights.

Quality: As we mentioned before, Indonesia ranks poorly on infant mortality with a need for better options and equipment for midwives to change that. Thus, if we were to launch the Omega system in Indonesia, and follow up data suggests a decrease in child mortality, it could support the notion that the Omega system was responsible for the increase in quality of

It also offers its merchandise, including the in-house MODA maternity clothing line, through catalogs and its website. Mothercare serves the retail toy market with its Early Learning Centre (ELC) unit. While the company has struggled at home, it has been increasingly successful overseas, particularly in Russia and India.