Volume 3(1) April 2020, Journal of Community Empowerment for Health 18 Parmawati et al. Knowledge enhancement about pregnancy complications Vol 3 (1) 2020, 18-27| Original Artcle DOI: 10.22146/jcoemph.47317 1. Introducton The target of Program Sehat Indonesia for 2015-2019 is to improve the health level and nutritonal status of the community through health development programs, community empowerment, fnancial protecton and equity of health services. 1 One indicator of health development in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) is the Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR). According to the Intercensal Populaton Survey (SUPAS) data in 2015, the number of Indonesian MMR was stll high at 305/100,000 live births. 2 Maternal mortality is caused by direct causes including bleeding (28%), eclampsia (24%), and infecton (11%), and also caused by indirect causes namely, lack of chronic energy (37%) and anemia (40%). Other indirect causes are cancer, kidney and heart troubles, tuberculosis or other maternal diseases. 3 Yogyakarta is one of the provinces in Indonesia which has a fairly high MMR. In 2011, it was found that there were 56 cases of maternal deaths in Yogyakarta with the main causes of bleeding, eclampsia, and sepsis. 4 Whereas, the mortality rate of the Yogyakarta provincial capital in 2017 was 84/100,000 live births. 5 The data showed a decline compared to 2015 which was 125.88/100,000 live births. 6 In 2011, the number of mothers who underwent treatments for complicatons was 7.44%. 4 Kulon Progo is one of the districts in Yogyakarta with a populaton of 417,570 in 2015. 7 Based on data from the Kulon Progo District Health Ofce, MMR in 2016 reached 136.98/100,000 live births (seven cases). That number increased signifcantly compared to 2015 which was recorded at 38.22/100,000 live Knowledge enhancement about pregnancy complications: Optimizing the role of high risk pregnancy prepared cadres Ika Parmawati*, Ayyu Sandhi, Wenny Artanty Nisman, Wiwin Lismidiati, Anik Rustiyaningsih, and Itsna Luthf Kholisa Department of Pediatric and Maternity Nursing, Faculty of Medicine, Public Health, and Nursing, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia SUBMITTED: 7 April 2019 REVISED: 18 December 2019 ACCEPTED: 25 January 2020 ABSTRACT Maternal death rate is one of the important health development indicators. Indonesian maternal mortality is still high due to both direct and indirect causes that occur during pregnancy and childbirth. High-risk pregnancy can present complications for both the mother and fetus, and demands early detection. Early detection requires involvement of the community, health cadre, medical ofcers, and government. There is a need to increase the community health cadre competency in the detection of pregnancy complications, especially high-risk pregnancy knowledge. This study used a quasi-experimental design without control group to determine the efect of training regarding pregnancy complications on community health worker’s knowledge in Wijimulyo, Nanggulan, Kulon Progo, Yogyakarta in October 2018. The research subjects were community health cadre workers chosen by purposive random sampling. There were 43 research subjects who were given pretests, training about complications of pregnancy, and posttests. The instrument used was a knowledge questionnaire about complications during pregnancy that consisted of 23 items with reliability of 0.865. There was signifcant diference between community health cadre’s knowledge about complications of pregnancy at pretest and posttest. These results indicate that training about pregnancy complications increases the knowledge of community health cadre workers concerning complications of pregnancy. Further research is needed to assess community health cadre’s skills in making early detection of pregnancy complications. © The Journal 2020. This article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. KEYWORDS Community health workers Early detection Health cadre training High-risk pregnancy Pregnancy complications *Correspondence: ika.parmawati@mail.ugm.ac.id Department of Pediatric and Maternity Nursing, Faculty of Medicine, Public Health, and Nursing, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Sleman, Yogyakarta 55281, Indonesia