PAINT

(Peer Education in Maternal Health)

SCORA CIMSA UPH

A famous saying by Washington Irving goes, ‘a mother’s love endures through all’, which in most cases is an undeniable fact. 

According to WHO (World Health Organization), approximately more than 500,000 pregnant women die every year from pregnancy complications, whilst according to a 2007 demographic survey from Kesehatan Indonesia (SDKI), for every 100,000 live births, 228 women died. About 88-98% of deaths could have been prevented had these women received the proper care during pregnancy and labour. 

Unfortunately, in Indonesia, antenatal care is still inadequate:

• Not all pregnant women meet the standard of having to at least do 4 antenatal check-ups during pregnancy – in the year 2010, only 95,26% of pregnant women came to their first antenatal check-up, and only 85,56% of them went until their fourth. 
• Low quality antenatal service, only 48,14% of pregnant women went to at least 4 antenatal check-ups and received necessary supplements. 

• Only 19,9% of pregnant mothers received the 5T check-up – berat badan (body weight), tinggi badan (height), tekanan darah (blood pressure), pemberian imunisasi TT (TT immunisation)and tablet Fe (iron tablet).

Care towards pregnant women should also be done post-labour, or otherwise known as postpartum care. About 60% of mothers died post-labour, in which 50% of them were in the first 24 hours.

Postpartum care takes about 6 weeks and is divided into 4 periods:

1. Immediate postpartum (0-24 hours post-labour) – a critical period, where bleeding often happens due to uterine atony.
2. Early postpartum (24 hours – 1-week post-labour) – period to ensure that uterine involution, bleeding, lochia, and temperature of the mother is normal by providing her with adequate nutrients and fluid. 
3. Late postpartum (1-6 weeks post-labour) – period to keep the mother’s state stable.  
4. Remote puerperium (> 6 weeks post-labour) – period to recover the mother’s condition back to normal.

In hopes of reducing such numbers, PAINT as a platform for PETRAs (Peer Educator Trainers) to funnel their knowledge and teach CIMSA UPH SCORA members regarding antenatal care and postpartum health was held on the 27^thof February 2021. The event consisted of a webinar and small working groups for members to discuss role-play cases that simulates real life scenarios to create better peer educators in that field. 

As such, although a mother’s love is priceless, we should at least give back by raising awareness and take baby steps to decrease the mortality rate of pregnant women.