Background : Every year 1 million babies died on the first day of life due to asphyxia. The risk of asphyxia is 8 times higher in the country with high neonatal death. In Indonesia, about 27.000 newborn babies died in the first day of their life due to asphyxia. Asphyxia is the second main cause of death in neonatal periode in Indonesia (27%), after low birth weight (29%).

Objective : The study aimed to examine the characteristics of asphyxiated newborn babies.

Method : This study used data from a major research project (IMMPACT) in two referral hospitals in Banten Province (n=1628) during period of 2003-2004. Cases were obstetric patients and their in-born babies. Asphyxia of newborn babies was defined as recorded in medical record.

Result : The prevalence of asphyxia among newborn infants during the study period in the two referral hospitals in Serang and Pandeglang District was 24.3%. The majority of asphyxiated babies were from rural areas (34.3%) with majority of mothers (79.9%) experienced non-life threatening complications. Younger mothers, multipara and multigravida showed higher proportion of asphyxiated newborn. Asphyxia, as well as death among newborn infants illustrates health services quality received by mother and baby before and after care in the hospital. The fact that mothers from rural areas had higher proportion of asphyxiated infants showed inadequate health services quality received by mothers, as well as lack of access to hospital care. Access to hospitals, and adequate management of mother with complication in the hospitals need to be improved to lower the risk of birth asphyxia among newborn infants.