International Journal of Indonesian Studies Volume 1, Issue 3 | Page 87

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INDONESIAN STUDIES
SPRING 2016
One interesting theme which arose from discussions with some local community
members in Nusa village was the idea that modernization has actually led to an increase in
the rate of illnesses in these villages. When reflecting on their childhoods, the communities
of Nusa spoke of a time when food and medicine was much simpler and more natural. No
chemicals were used in eating, cooking, cleaning or in the development of agriculture and
livestock. According to these communities, people were stronger and lived longer back in
the old days.
There have been a range of advances in medical technology, the revolution of
maternal and neonatal health as well as the reformation of health clinics and a plethora of
other government programs. Within this context there has been not only an increase in
medical staff and research but also an increase in the number of diagnoses of illnesses.
These community perceptives raised the idea of a potential risk of paranoia contributing to
increased diagnoses.
‘Other’ emergent causes of maternal and neonatal mortality
Through discussions with the focus groups, local village health clinic workers, and Dinas
Kesehatan expert staff as well as various other community a number of ‘other’ potential
causes of maternal and neonatal mortality were identified. These factors included
transportation, rural isolation and difficult road conditions. Such factors present obstacles
for mothers in labour from accessing adequate health services and safe health facilities in
time. Ambulances, cars and sometimes motorbikes cannot always access the most distant
and remote village households. This situation may be worsened by poor and slow decision
making, lack of awareness of good practice in assisting expectant mothers, slow decision
making and poor decisions which may put these mothers at further risk.
Even if these mothers are able to make the often long and arduous journey to a
health care facility. Medical health staff are not always guaranteed to be available at these
facilities. Well trained medical health staff may be even more difficult to come across. While
inexperience and the rates of malpractice have not been studied in this context, these are
factors which should not be neglected as possible causes of maternal and neonatal death.
This was an issue that was largely dependent on geographic factors.

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