Comprehensive Post-Abortion Care (PAC) Training in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) was held again from September 9-13, 2024, at Prof. Dr. W.Z. Johannes Regional General Hospital, Kupang City. This training is a form of support from the IPAS Indonesia Foundation to the Indonesian Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) for the expansion of miscarriage services, making them easily accessible to women who experience miscarriage.
With this improved access, miscarriage cases can be managed promptly and with quality, thereby contributing to the reduction of the Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR).
Iwan M. Pelokilla, Head of the Public Health Division, representing the Head of the NTT Provincial Health Office, stated in his remarks that this training is expected to improve the quality of reproductive health services in the region.
The IPAS Indonesia Foundation collaborates with the NTT Provincial Government to conduct a pilot project related to comprehensive PAC services in Kupang Regency, South Central Timor, and East Flores, through the TAKENUSA project (Joint Determination for Women’s Health in Nusa Tenggara).
“We have high hopes that after this training, reproductive health service data in the three regencies that have been equipped [with PAC training] can provide reproductive health services, especially comprehensive PAC services, thereby contributing to further suppressing and even reducing the MMR in NTT,” said Iwan Pelokilla.
He explained that data from the Maternal Perinatal Death Notification (MPDN), or the Ministry of Health’s maternal death recording system, shows that the absolute number of maternal deaths in NTT has decreased since 2021. In that year, there were 181 cases of maternal deaths, which then decreased to 171 in 2022, and further reduced to 135 cases in 2023.
Dr. Stefanus D. Soka, Director of Prof. Dr. W.Z. Johannes Regional General Hospital, added that this training is expected to improve the ability of health workers in managing miscarriages. He emphasized that many aspects need to be considered in miscarriage management.
“This PAC training activity is one area of knowledge that we must update. All this time, we have considered miscarriage cases to be common, but it turns out there are many things we need to pay attention to when providing post-abortion care for patients who experience miscarriage,” he added.
This Comprehensive PAC training, utilizing a Ministry of Health accredited curriculum, marks the second wave in NTT. A total of 5 obstetricians and gynecologists, 3 general practitioners, and 17 midwives from 3 regencies and Kupang City (province) participated in this activity. This training is a continuation of the first wave of training held in August 2024.
The purpose of this training is to strengthen the competence of health workers in providing Comprehensive PAC services, not only for Advanced Referral Health Facilities (Hospitals) teams but also for Primary Health Facilities (Community Health Centers) teams. This aims to support the expansion of Comprehensive PAC services to Primary Health Facilities, which have so far primarily focused on hospitals.
Dr. Laurens David Paulus, Sp.OG, Chairman of the Indonesian Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology, NTT Province Chapter, expressed his high hopes that this training could assist in managing miscarriage cases in the region.
“In principle, this PAC training has been conducted in two waves: the first in August and the second today. Subsequently, we will proceed with implementation at health service facilities in each regency. This is quite helpful, especially for miscarriage cases that are still not well-recorded, as maternal deaths due to miscarriage are not yet properly documented, and that is also our concern,” he concluded.