During pregnancy and lactation, the adequate intake (AI) for total water intake is increased. This cross-sectional survey aimed to assess Total Fluid Intake (TFI; sum of drinking water and all other fluids) of 300 pregnant and 300 breastfeeding women in Indonesia. A seven-day fluid specific record was used to assess TFI. Mean TFI of pregnant and breastfeeding women were 2332 ± 746 mL/day and 2525 ± 843 mL/day, respectively. No significant difference in TFI between pregnancy trimesters was observed, while TFI of women breastfeeding for 12–24 months postpartum (2427 ± 955 mL/day) was lower than that of the two other groups (0–5 months: 2607 ± 754 mL/day; 6–11 months: 2538 ± 807 mL/day, respectively). Forty-two and 54% of the pregnant and breastfeeding subjects, respectively, did not reach the AI of water from fluids. These AI were actually known by only 14% and 23% of the pregnant and breastfeeding subjects. However, having the knowledge about the AI did not increase the odds of reaching the AI. Concluding that a high proportion of the pregnant and breastfeeding subjects did not reach the AI of water from fluid, it seems pertinent to further assess the fluid intake, as well as their hydration status, in other countries.

Background: Amongst the Health Care Professionals, midwife has a strategic role in taking care of both mother and child in contributing to their survival, health, and wellbeing. The retaining midwife’s knowledge and quality of care through training on specific skills is strongly needed. This study aimed to evaluate the knowledge retention among midwives after the provision of digestive health, nutrition, and parenting education sessions at immediate and three months after the education.Methods: A serial pre-post intervention experimental study was conducted from January to July 2016 to evaluate the knowledge before (pre-test), immediate after (post-test), and three months after the provision of three sessions of digestion health, nutrition, and parenting (character building) topics by the experts which covered from several areas in Indonesia. The improvement of the sufficient knowledge proportion time by time was analyzed by using McNemar test.Results: The low immediate response rate (77.2%) and very low response after the 3-month follow-up (26.4%) were revealed during the study. At baseline, less than 50% of the subjects had sufficient knowledge on digestive health, nutrition, and parenting. At immediate after and after three months, there were significant improvements in the proportion of sufficient knowledge in nutrition and parenting topics. However, there was a declining of sufficient knowledge at after 3 months group compared to immediate group.Conclusion: The knowledge retention from the continuing health education among widwives in Indonesia decreased after 3 months.

Indonesians have a high intake of saturated fats, a key contributing dietary factor to elevated blood cholesterol concentrations. We investigated the cholesterol lowering efficacy of a smoothie drink with 2 grams of plant stanols as esters to lower serum total and LDL-cholesterol concentrations in hypercholesterolemic Indonesian adults. The double-blind randomized placebo controlled parallel design study involved 99 subjects. Fifty subjects received control drink and dietary advice, and 49 subjects received intervention drink (Nutrive Benecol®) and dietary advice. Baseline, midline (week 2), and endline (week 4) assessments were undertaken for clinical, anthropometric, and biochemical variables. Compared to control, the smoothie drink with plant stanols reduced serum LDL-cholesterol concentration by 7.6% (p < 0.05) and 9.0% (p < 0.05) in two and four weeks, respectively. Serum total cholesterol was reduced by 5.7% (p < 0.05 compared to control) in two weeks, and no further reduction was detected after four weeks (5.6%). Compared to baseline habitual diet, LDL-cholesterol was reduced by 9.3% (p < 0.05) and 9.8% (p < 0.05) in the plant stanol ester group in two and four weeks, respectively. We conclude that consumption of smoothie drink with added plant stanol esters effectively reduces serum total and LDL-cholesterol of hypercholesterolemic Indonesian subjects already in two weeks. Trial is registered as NCT02316808.