Jakarta (ANTARA) - Directorate of Productive Age and Older Adult Health at the Ministry of Health emphasized the importance of effective and informative counseling to increase the achievement of postpartum family planning programs since antenatal checks.

Chair of the reproductive health working team at the directorate, Wira Hartiti, stated that several couples still do not have complete information regarding family planning, especially regarding the safety of contraceptive device insertion that often raises worries among women.

"It is, indeed, a challenge for us, as service providers, to ensure health workers can provide the best, informative, and effective counseling on the insertion of family planning devices that meets standards," she stated here on Wednesday.

She pointed out that in several cases, women canceled taking part in postpartum family planning programs after giving birth because of information received from their partner or family despite having earlier signed a commitment in the Maternal and Child Health Handbook (KIA).

"Family is clearly very influential when making decisions like that. It cannot only be determined by the mother," she emphasized.

Hartiti highlighted the need for education and encouragement from health workers to couples with pregnant wives and families to participate in pregnancy classes that provide information on postpartum family planning programs and their functions.

"As stated by the head of the (population and family planning) agency, all methods are safe to be used, so there should be no more misperceptions, but in reality, (good) understanding (among people) has not yet been achieved, so this is our joint task," she remarked.

She expressed hope that in future, innovative strategies can be provided in order to bolster the competency of assistance teams that are at the forefront of increasing understanding and awareness of the importance of postpartum family planning programs.

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Translator: Hana Dewi, Raka Adji
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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