Indonesia is witnessing an increase in infant mortality rates amid the lingering economic crisis. Infant mortality rates in the country have risen from 47 deaths per 1,000 births in 1997 to 51 deaths per 1,000 births in 2001. Studies indicate about 50 infants will die for every 1,000 born, within the first week of their birth, by 2004. In addition to this, post-natal maternal mortality rates (MMR) have also increased during this period. MMR has increased from 325 mothers per 100,000 births in 1995 to 396 mothers in 2001. Some experts estimate that maternal mortality rate could be as high as 594 per 100,000 births. This implies that over 140,000 babies aged less than one week die every year, or 2,690 per week. And over 300 mothers die every week after giving birth to a child. Studies show that because of such high infant and maternal mortality rates, Indonesia will only be able to reduce the figure to about 20 per 1,000 births after 2025. The economic crisis in the country has increased the number of people without access to health services because of which infant and maternal mortality rates are steadily increasing. Indonesia os the second worst in Southeast Asia after Myanmar in terms of infant and maternal mortality rates. Studies indicates that the main killers of babies was premature birth and being underweight at birth, followed by respiratory infections and diarrhea. For mothers, bleeding after birth and anemia were two of the main causes of deaths. All of this indicate that the government needs to pay more attention towards increasing the access of low-income communities and vulnerable populations towards health care and consciously try to reduce high infant and maternal mortality rates. [Source: The Jakarta Post]