Children born from unwanted pregnancies receive discriminative treatment from families, and they fail to get much love and care, Ichitiarto noted during the unveiling of the 2022 World Population Situation Report in Ciawi, Bogor, West Java, Friday.
In addition to balanced nutrition, parenting is also a determining factor in stunting, he remarked.
Parents' lack of intention to raise their children properly leads them to feel unwanted, which further raises the possibility of stunting and can threaten the quality of Indonesia's human resources in future.
Stunting is known to have prolonged negative impacts on children. Children suffering from stunting can experience growth failure in terms of their physical appearance and brain development.
As a result, the intelligence levels of such children would not be optimal, thereby affecting their productivity and creativity when they are in the productive age. The risk of children suffering from more diseases increases as they get older.
"Children, who were born but were unwanted, will experience a hurdle in terms of psychosocial growth and development that start to decrease when they turn 30, especially if they are the only child," Ichitiarto noted.
"This also became a threat to the nation's capability in innovating and competing at the global stage," he stated.
To this end, the agency strives to prevent unwanted pregnancies by expanding the dissemination of information on family planning as well as the use of contraceptive devices, he emphasized.
Moreover, it provides quality health service for mothers that is undertaken early on, so that the first one thousand days of life (HPK) of children can be optimal.
Routine contraception utilization monitoring of fertile-age couples is also being optimized in addition to providing assistance and counseling to mothers, who experience unwanted pregnancies.
"To prevent stunting, one of the interventions being conducted is pregnancy prevention efforts after mothers give birth until the child reaches at least two years of age through the post-labor family planning service," he stated.
"This is done with the expectation that mothers can provide breastmilk to children optimally and avoid having children, with the birth interval being too close," he stated.
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Translator: Hreeloita D S, Fadhli Ruhman
Editor: Sri Haryati
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