The influence of leadership style and domicile to power distance of midwife coordinators and village Midwives in Hulu Sungai Tengah District

Four mothers in Indonesia died in a day as a result of giving birth. It puts Indonesia as the second highest maternal mortality rate (305/100, 000) and infant mortality rate (26/1, 000) in Southeast Asia. Health services that contribute directly to reducing MMR are health services during pregnancy or antenatal care, which are mostly carried out by village midwives. Many factors can influence the performance of village midwives between the distance of power. This research uses a quantitative method with a cross-sectional approach. The population were all midwives, both village midwives and midwife coordinators, totalling 200 village midwives and 19 coordinating midwives. The sample was 95 respondents (village midwives) obtained from 13 public health centre in Hulu Sungai Tengah District. Research results show that midwife coordinators with democratic leadership styles tend to show low power distance. Likewise, the village midwife who lives in the target village tends to show power distance between the midwife coordinators and the low village midwives. Two-way communication and openness of superiors characterize low power distance to all members. Low power distance can to create high job involvement and ultimately can produce a good performance. The tendency of the influence of leadership style and domicile of village midwives to power distance between midwife coordinators and village midwives has not shown a significant influence (p =-0.466) and (p =-0.268). So, the leadership style of the midwife coordinators and the village midwives domicile shows a certain tendency of power distance but statistically does not show significance.