Abstract

Since the first five years development plan, the coverage as well as the quality of maternal health services have been improved considerably, however the maternal mortality ratio has not shown any sign to decline so far. The Indonesian Demographic and Health Survey (IDHS) has shown high coverage of ante natal care in 1991 as well as in 1994, but more than fifty percent of deliveries are still assisted by the Traditional Birth Attendant (TBA). This further analysis using secondary data of IDHS 1994, covering ever-married women aged 15-49 years who has children born in the last 5 years period prior to the survey. The purpose of this analysis is to identify determining factors which affected the choice of pregnant women to deliver assisted by TBA. The potential determinant factors were analyzed consisted of: demographic, socio-economic and biomedical characteristic. The analysis was using descriptive and inferential statistics (bivariat). The result showed that 20449 children were born in the last 5 years period prior the survey, and 8084 children were born to mothers with more than 3 times ante natal care, but 71 percent of their deliveries were assisted by TBA. Traditional Birth Attendant still played an important role to assist deliveries, in Java-Bali region 79 percent and in Outer Java-Bali 59 percent of deliveries were assisted by TBA. Deliveries in the rural area (77 percent) are more likely to be assisted by TBA than in urban areas (51 percent). The statistical analyses showed that children born to parents with lower educational levels, living in rural areas, and who are less exposed to information media, are more likely to be assisted by TBA. From this analysis it is recommended a) to intensify health education; pregnancy health care and save delivery through social activities and information media, b) to improve TBAs' knowledge to identify early signs of high risk pregnancy and delivery and c) to improve the utilization and coverage of village midwives to assist deliveries.