Midwives as Drivers of Contraceptive Uptake: Evidence From Indonesia Demographic and Health Surveys

Abstract

The midwives play an important role in maternal and child health in developing countries, but they are rarely involved in providing family planning services, except in Indonesia. This article underscores the midwives’ crucial role in supplying modern contraceptive methods in Indonesia. Data for this analysis came from 8 waves of the Indonesia Demographic and Health Survey (IDHS). The main analysis was confined to 17 216 current users of modern methods from the 2017 IDHS. The midwives delivered contraceptives to 53% of the modern-method users in Indonesia. Multinomial logistic regression shows that the odds of users obtaining their contraceptive supplies from the midwives was significantly associated with age, parity, urban-rural location, region, education, wealth, exposure to family planning, and method type. The midwives help to reduce the doctors’ workload for them to focus on specialized services. Developing countries can learn from the Indonesian experience to ensure equitable access to family planning services.