Ministry Of Health: Infant Mortality In Indonesia Is 84 Percent Due To Premature Birth

JAKARTA - Director of Family Health of the Indonesian Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) Erna Mulati said 84 percent of deaths in newborns in Indonesia were caused by premature birth.

“As many as 84 percent occur because of premature birth. This has become very high, due to the occurrence of preeclampsia (abnormalities in pregnancy) and eclampsia (seizures in pregnancy) whose numbers continue to increase from year to year," said Erna at the USAID Momentum Program Launching Indonesia and the United States which was followed on the Indonesian Ministry of Health's YouTube channel in Jakarta, reported by Antara, Thursday, September 23.

Erna explained that 50 percent of infant deaths occurred in the first 28 days since the baby was born. Meanwhile, infants who died at the age of seven to 27 days reached 11.4 percent and 38.2 percent of infants died less than seven days of age.

The high infant mortality rate, he said, based on 2019 Basic Health Research data, was caused by 17 percent of pregnant women experiencing chronic energy deficiency. The next cause is almost 50 percent of pregnant women experience anemia.

"Almost 50 percent of pregnant women experience anemia based on Riskesdas 2019 and about 17 percent of pregnant women with chronic lack of energy. This is one of the causes of prematurity," he said.

He said that in order to prevent infant mortality from increasing, improvements need to be made starting at the puskesmas level. premature with low birth weight," said Erna.

Separately, Head of the National Population and Family Planning Agency (BKKBN) Hasto Wardoyo said expectant mothers need to do a health screening first to find out their nutritional and nutritional status before marriage.

“For women, they must meet the requirements to get pregnant. The BKKBN will not prohibit people from getting married because it is not under their authority. But the BKKBN wants to do a screening before marriage, the nutritional status has been checked first," said Hasto at the "Inclusion of the Manggala Karya Kencana Award to the Governor of East Java, Khofifah Indar Parawansa" in Jakarta, Monday (6/9). mothers to check their nutritional and nutritional status so that the condition of the mother can be known more quickly if she is malnourished or has anemia.