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Exemplary Midwife Promotes VIA Test and Exclusive Breastfeeding with Balai Sakinah ‘Aisyiyah

Sri Kaeni, a midwife in Bedingin village, East Java is known for her commitment in promoting the importance of Visual Inspection with Acetic Acid (VIA) for cervical cancer early detection. Her commitment is also reflected in her paper entitled A Village with Awareness of Cervical Cancer which brought her an award as Exemplary Midwife. This award was given by Lamongan District Health Office.

In her paper, she explained about Balai Sakinah ‘Aisyiyah (BSA)’s VIA test campaign. Through this campaign, Sri encouraged Bedingin’s people to do VIA test and Pap smear.

Prior to BSA’s VIA test campaign, supported by ‘Aisyiyah-MAMPU Program, there were only 4 to 5 women got tested in Bedingin per year. Now, more than 120 women got themselves tested for cervical cancer every year.

Her commitment to save lives and help poor communities is getting stronger since she joined ‘Aisyiyah-MAMPU’s activities in Bedingin village. She helped Bedingin’s integrated health post (Posyandu) in addressing their financial issues. Government’s limited budget for Posyandu creates a challenge for Bedingin residents in accessing health services.

She proposed free VIA program through initiative fund of Bedingin village to overcome this problem. The fund mechanism requires each household in Bedingin pays IDR 1.000,- (AUD 0.10) per month. It is allocated to improve their public health services in integrated health post (Posyandu) such as Providing Supplementary Feeding (PMT) for toddlers, nutritious food for elderly, a coaching program in five regions, free VIA and allowance for its cadres. Sri is not only good with program development, but she is also very tenacious and adept in taking care of her patients. Her tenacity grabbed Department of Health’s attention. Regent Lamongan and Department of Health awarded a car for Sri and local government to be used by the health posts as an appreciation for their rigorous effort in improving the quality of public health services in Bedingin.

“It took 30 minutes to Bedingin. At that moment, a main road to Bedingin was damaged. I hope this car can help people access health services in Bedingin,” she said.

Other than that, she also assisted Breastfeeding Support Group (KP ASI) of BSA Khadijah in Bedingin. She divided the program into pregnancy and breastfeeding class. In pregnancy class, she teaches women to do moderate exercises, prepare themselves for breastfeeding and their dietary during pregnancy. In breastfeeding class, she encourages women to give their babies exclusive breastfeeding and do postpartum care after childbirth.

In this program, she also encouraged family members to support women who wants to do exclusive breastfeeding program for 24 months. She regularly visits her patients to check on their condition. In her visit, she also teaches them to breastfeed, measure their blood pressure and check on their post pregnancy condition.

It does not always run smoothly. She faces many challenges such as rejections from working mothers to express breastmilk during workday. Long working hours and limited resting hours make it hard for them to keep up milk supply for their babies.

Sometimes, she had to argue with their families, such as with Marpuah, a grandmother of a baby she took care of explained her worries.

“At first, I was worried since my grandson cried a lot. His body temperature was very high. His mother cannot produce breast milk in the first 48 hours,” Marpuah said.

This situation did not discourage her to promote exclusive breastfeeding program. She gave an understanding to Marpuah that the mother and the family of the baby should not give up on breastfeeding since it will give adequate nutrition for the baby. Finally, Marpuah understood Sri’s decision. Now, Marpuah grandson grows up healthy and strong.

Supported by Bedingin’s health center, ‘Aisyiyah local leaders and BSA, she tried to increase public awareness on the importance of reproductive health and exclusive breastfeeding. As a follow up action, they gave awards and gifts to members of BSA in Bedingin who implemented the exclusive breastfeeding program.

“We give small presents to our members who successfully implement the program. Hopefully, it can motivate them to breastfeed their babies. Therefore, their babies can get adequate nutrition during breastfeeding,” she said.

Thanks to Sri and BSA of Bedingin, now, residents of Bedingin are aware of the importance of reproductive health and proper feeding for their infants. They can also access health facilities such as PMT for infants, posyandu for elderly and free VIA test.

In the future, she hopes that BSA could continuously support local government and midwives to improve residents of Bedingin’s health and expand their knowledge on reproductive health issues.

Keep up the good work, Sri!

Written by: Niswatin