UNAIR NEWS - Midwifery Alumni Association (IKAWARY) Faculty of Medicine UNAIR held a Forum Ilmiah Alumni (Alumni Scientific Forum) on Sunday (29/1/2023). Aldilia Wyasti Pratama SKeb Bd MSc, an alumna of the UNAIR Midwifery program in 2015, was present as a speaker at the event, which was held online.

On that occasion, Aldilia, her nickname, presented her dissertation to obtain an MSc degree in Women's Health from University College London entitled Indonesian Women's Hypothetical Choice about Maternity Care Providers: A Survey Investigation. The study focused on selecting health workers, such as midwifery and obstetrics and gynecology, among pregnant women in Indonesia.

"Initially from my observations, I felt that mothers with good social status tended to go to obstetricians even though they were low-risk mothers. When they are low-risk mothers, why do they have to go to the obgyn, which is clearly pathological," Aldilia explained at the beginning of the session.

This condition in Indonesia is in contrast to the situation in the UK, where pregnant women tend to go to obstetricians with less medical intervention, especially in cases of normal childbirth. In fact, the number of medical personnel (health workers) in Indonesia is minimal, with uneven distribution as well. If low-risk mothers go to obstetricians, they will tend to be overworked, which eventually, there is a risk of high-risk pregnant women being neglected.

"Mothers who are low-risk or 100 percent healthy can be handled by midwives. In addition, 85 percent of pregnancies and childbirths are physiological, according to WHO. So only a few are pathological," said the founder of Famelia.id.

With her survey study, Aldilia found that out of 170 participants, 82.4 percent thought that the ratio between obgyn doctors and pregnant women was 1:99. In fact, the actual ratio is 1:900, which means that an obgyn doctor will handle 900 pregnant women in Indonesia.

"So, the judgment we have as individuals is determined by the familiarity and availability around us. Women who underestimate this ratio may think there are many obgyns around them. It is different, for example, with friends in Eastern Indonesia, for example, there is only one obgyn in one province," Aldilia explained.

The tendency to choose obgyn doctors as health service providers for pregnant women, continued Aldilia, may also be influenced by the Indonesian view of pregnancy. In Indonesia, labor and pregnancy are always seen from a medical perspective. Pregnancy is also considered something full of risks, even a woman's life can be at stake.

"So, narratives like that make us have a dilemma. Finally, we choose a healthcare provider who is more intellectual, more knowledgeable, which in society is considered an obgyn doctor," Aldilia explained. (*)

Author: Agnes Ikandani

Editor: Binti Q. Masruroh

Source: https://alumni.unair.ac.id/site/article/read/1969/forum-ilmiah-alumni-kebidanan-unair-bahas-stu.html