
Three Midwifery students from the Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Brawijaya (UB) won 2nd place in the National Business Plan Competition Management Vaganza 2023 held by Siliwangi University in Tasikmalaya, West Java, (12/11-13/11/2023).
Consisting of Adinda Zahrani Mintarja, Arantxa Fahira Malaka, and Dewi Elisa Angraeni supervised by Dr. Diadjeng Setya Wardani, S.Si.T, M.Kes, the FK UB team competed with 5 Grand Finalists from other popular universities.
Femina Cafetaria is the first midwifery cafe in Indonesia with excellent service that cares about women’s health, which is a first mover midwifery cafe with a mission to contribute to the country’s economy through multi-sector career transformation as well as the vital goal of improving the health status of Indonesian women.
Adinda, as the team leader, explained that the background to this innovation began with the team’s concern regarding the rise of various phenomena that are currently occurring, as stated that 50 percent of women in Indonesia experience postpartum depression, which is the third highest case in Asia.
“In addition, the prevalence of stunting in Indonesia is also quite high at 21.6%, which is caused by a lack of nutrition in mothers who are ‘not ready’ to accept pregnancy, the widespread of cases of sexually transmitted infections and various other problems which cause women to become a vulnerable group to various health risks. “Unfortunately, the various stigmas that exist actually make many of them reluctant, afraid and embarrassed to go to health workers, unless they really feel ‘sick’,” said Adinda.
Adinda added, so far, there is often a negative stigma about teenagers coming to a midwife, which is one of the obstacles in many cases where early detection cannot be carried out. Or a woman’s reluctance and fear to come to a midwife if she doesn’t really feel sick also becomes a challenge in ‘transferring’ correct information.
Based on this explanation, the team then initiated the unique innovation of Femina Cafetaria, a Midwifery Café which sells a selection of food and drink menus that are healthy for women’s health.
Equipped with Midwifery Counseling Services, a midwifery consultation service ranging from adolescent to pre-marital consultations as well as a Women’s Health Corner which provides medical equipment facilities such as heating pads to relieve menstrual pain and others.
This facility can be utilized by visitors to Femina Cafetaria, with a target market of older millennials to Z generation, from teenagers to the elderly, especially the women’s community and couples of childbearing ages who are interested in mental health issues, reproductive health and families with the perception of a healthy lifestyle.
Moreover, the advantage of this Femina Cafetaria innovation is the presence of a High-Stress Level Test during counseling sessions as an early detection step.
The test results will later become a reference for midwife counselors to connect customers with mental health specialist partners who are experts in their fields for customers who need further excellent treatment.
“Until finally we tried to discuss it. What if there was a café that could be a one stop health service solution that was friendly to the women’s community because of its ‘homey’ concept like being at home, but on the other hand it could also be a career transformation maneuver for the midwifery profession in the future while also contributing to the country’s economy by opening up multisector field work,” explained Arantxa.
In its implementation, Femina Cafetaria also has the potential to establish concrete collaboration with parties driving women’s empowerment, women and child protection commissions, as well as regional governments. This makes the realization of Femina Cafetaria a strategic step for many sectors to be able to collaborate with the same vision to improve the quality of health services which is also the focus of point 3 in the 2030 SDG’s (Sustainable Development Goals).
Adinda and the team hope that this Business Plan idea will not only stop at the realm of competition, but the team also hopes that this idea can continue to be developed and truly realized in entrepreneurial steps as well as strategic steps to solve problems in society in order to realize “health which is a right of all Indonesian women”. (*/oky/UB PR/ Trans. Iir).