Pregnancy planning is crucial in areas with limited access to reproductive health services. That is what midwife Mery Amalia Patnay has learned while practicing in Sunu Village, South Central Timor District, since 2021. She always tries to help women plan their pregnancies through counseling.
Midwife Mery once handled a rather challenging pregnancy case. “[Pernah ada] pregnant woman who was pregnant with her 12th child with an age of about 50 years. We have made a planned referral, so the patient must deliver in the hospital,” she said.
However, ‘because it was raining, the family said they didn’t want to go to the hospital,’ she added. In fact, village officials had called an ambulance to refer the mother. “The patient refused because they had no money. That’s when the village officials provided transportation money from the village fund,” recalled Midwife Mery.
With this in mind, she encourages every woman in Sunu Village to plan her pregnancy carefully to avoid the unexpected. With this planning, it is easier for her to prioritize services. This is especially important for Bidan Mery as she is the only midwife in the village.
“Because there is only one midwife here, and the distance between hamlets is far, what I do is to visit homes, especially for pregnant women with high risk and unplanned pregnancies. During these visits, I provide counseling,” she added.
Changing behavior to better plan for pregnancy is not an easy task. “The main obstacle is that there is still a tradition here, that when using birth control, women are taken to church first, then they can use birth control. There are even families where the husband makes the decision to use birth control,” she said.
To encourage this change, Midwife Mery works with the pastor and a number of parties including village officials and youth groups. “I once visited a pregnant woman with the pastor and the village father because at that time the pregnant woman was pregnant with her sixth child and had never used family planning,” she added.
The family also refused to be referred to the health center for delivery. [pendeta] “After making visits and praying for pregnant women, the pregnant woman finally wanted to go to the puskesmas. She wanted to use the implant after I counseled her,” recalled Midwife Mery.
Family planning training increases confidence in counseling
Midwife Mery admits that the midwife training organized by IPAS Indonesia Foundation has improved her skills in providing counseling for pregnancy planning. “I started to feel confident in providing good and correct counseling to pregnant women,” she admitted.
For example, she started encouraging women with pregnancies above 32 weeks to plan their pregnancies. “So what I promote to pregnant women is long-term family planning,” she added.
“Why do I have to counsel them to switch to long-term family planning? Because sometimes they use short-term birth control, and they migrate out of town. Well, when they migrate, they sometimes forget the injection date,” she concluded.
