- Everyday in PNG 3 women die due to complications of pregnancy/childbirth.
- For every woman who
dies, about 30 sustain significant disability. - 45 out of every 1000
babies born will not live to see their first birthday.
There were the statistics which propelled SI Port Moresby into action to put forward the Birthing in the Pacific project as a Federation wide project.
What Birthing in the Pacific aimed to do was improve mothers’ and babies’ chances in Papua New Guinea by training birth attendants
and clinicians, educating women and communities, improving equipment and facilities, and working closely with health departments to introduce
international best practice.
This project was so successful that the Federation continued this project until 2016, to ensure that all objectives were met.
Outcomes
Village Birth Attendants (VBA’s) have trained and graduated. These VBA’s are now saving the lives of women and children and will continue to carry out their work and train others so that the cycle of safe care can continue. The VBA’s are now monitoring the situation within their communities which was something that had not been done before.
BIP also achieved training for Community Health Workers (CHW’s) who often have no formal midwifery training. One of the CHW’s Jolly Kulimbua recently wrote to thank Project Manager of the BIP project, May Lamont. She stated “I take this great opportunity to thank you and your management for sponsoring my trip to Samoa to attend the PSRH’s 10th Biennial Scientific Conference. You have given me the privilege to experience this kind of meeting with other health workers of the same roles across the pacific. The conference was an eye opener for me to recognise that I am playing a key role in disseminating knowledge and skills to improve health issues affecting women of the reproductive age. I now hope to train and up-skill every rural health nurse with emergency midwife skills.
Hard to reach communities have been accessed and awareness raised about the importance of maternal healthcare. New equipment has been purchased and distributed to midwives and health centres around the country ranging from neo-natalie dolls to new beds.