BKKBN Says Family Planning Program Can Prevent Stunting Babies Born

Illustration of stunting prevention. (Between)

JAKARTA - Head of the National Population and Family Planning Agency (BKKBN) Hasto Wardoyo said the Family Planning (KB) program can prevent babies born from experiencing stunting or stunting.

He explained that the family planning program could create a distance between each pregnancy so that pregnant women would avoid having babies born in a stunted state.

"One of the causes of dwarfism is due to spacing or birth to birth intervals or distances that are too close. Therefore, the BKKBN has carried out a movement for post-partum family planning," said Hasto at the Merdeka Barat Forum (FMB9) to Prevent Stunting, Increase Competitiveness, which was followed online in Jakarta, Monday, April 4, quoted from Antara.

Hasto said the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends every mother to give each birth a distance of at least 36 months. However, in Indonesia, babies are still found with a birth spacing that has not touched 30 months.

As a result, many babies are born prematurely or have low birth weight (LBW). Data for Basic Health Research (Riskesdas) in 2018 stated that there were 29.5 percent of premature babies born in Indonesia.

He said that only 29 percent of mothers want to use contraception after giving birth. While many mothers claim that they do not want to get pregnant in the first year after getting married.

“If we look at people who give birth, when asked if they want to get pregnant in the first year, the answer is no. However, if the answer to family planning is no, this will eventually lead to unwanted pregnancies,” said Hasto.

Birth spacing also affects the rate of population growth, because the population affects the number of children experiencing stunting in an area.

Based on data from the Indonesian Nutritional Status Study (SSGI), this happened in five provinces, namely Central Java, East Java, West Java, Banten, and North Sumatra.

According to Hasto, Indonesia's stunting prevalence rate in 2021 will drop to 24.4 percent after 2018 it was 30.8 percent. Through the use of contraceptives, mothers can help the government bring the stunting prevalence rate down to 14 percent by 2024.

He hopes that mothers can join the family planning program using contraception after giving birth so that their children avoid stunting while reducing the prevalence of stunting by at least 3 percent every year.

"I think this is one way we have to do in order to prevent too close a distance," he concluded.