Data sources and methods
The current study used national data from the 2017, 2012, 2007, and
2002-3 Indonesia Demographic and Health Surveys (IDHS). We obtained
approval to access IDHS birth records. All data reported in this paper
is aggregate, and no attempt was made to identify study participants.
Data used was the individual recode women’s survey from the four most
recent waves, from 1997 to 2017. Due to political instability, there is
no data from the provinces Aceh, Maluku, North Maluku, and Papua during
the first wave. Maluku, North Maluku, and Papua are grouped into the
Eastern region, so there is no data from the Eastern region during this
timeframe. Aceh is a part of the Western Region, so only data from the
17 other Western provinces are reported during this time. IDHS used
two-stage stratified sampling methods distributed across census blocks
nationwide and weighted by province. More details of the sampling
procedure have been described elsewhere
(https://dhsprogram.com/publications/publication-FR342-DHS-Final-Reports.cfm).
All data from 1997 was dropped due to low participant numbers. Women who
had given birth within the past five years were included in the
analysis. If a participant had given birth more than once within the
last five years, only data on the most recent birth was used. We
excluded data from overlapping birth dates from different survey waves
to avoid statistical spikes in births every 5 years. The birth records
included questions regarding demographic characteristics, obstetric
history, childbirth service usage, and C-section. IDHS is funded by
USAID and the government of Indonesia.