Rural women in PNG struggle to give birth

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Rural women in PNG struggle to give birth

PORT MORESBY: Breathing heavily, a first-time mother struggles to push, surrounded by village women who came to help her.

The delivery took place in remote North Fly’s Ugubi village in Western, along the border with Hela.

Mama Gogo wanted to give birth in a health centre but it was too far to walk there. And the labour came unexpectedly.

She finally gave birth to twins but she lost a lot of blood and had two retained placentas.

Read on how one of most rural women struggled to give life to new borns, as published by The National:

A woman’s struggle to give birth

December 31, 2021The NationalMain Stories

The twins at the health centre. – Pictures courtesy of SALLY LLOYD

By MIRIAM ZARRIGA
BREATHING heavily, a first-time mother struggles to push, surrounded by village women who came to help her.
The delivery is taking place at the remote Ugubi village, North Fly, Western, along the border with Hela.
Mama Gogo wanted to give birth at the health centre but it was too far to walk there. And the labour came unexpectedly.
She finally gave birth – to twins, but she lost a lot of blood and had two retained placentas.
Mama Gogo was carried to another village after two days of complications but it too had no health worker.
It was evening on the third day after delivery and she was feeling weak and showing signs of infection.
Sally Lloyd, who lives at Mougulu told The National that due to the severity of the infection, the health centre workers advised that she be brought there.
“She was carried in a makeshift bed. Medical trainees and other men were sent to meet them. They met in a small village in the middle of the night,” she said.
“A drip was set up and Mama Gogo was given strong antibiotics and wrapped up to keep her warm. Her twin boys were cared for in two separate bilums.” At 5am on Dec 26, she arrived at the centre on a makeshift stretcher carried by men relying on the little torches they had.
Lloyd said: “The community wealth workers did a good job of caring for Gogo and stabilising her and the twin boys. They were not able to remove the placentas and were concerned about the infection and possible complications.
“We have no roads or rivers here and our closest hospital is almost a week’s walk away.
“The Provincial Health Authority helped to organise for her medical evacuation by air to Kiunga. Thankfully the doctors there were able to give her the support she needed, and blood transfusion. Now she and the boys are doing well.”
Lloyd told of the many mothers in remote villages who faced such situations.
“Many die if they have complications in birthing. There are communication difficulties – no phone network, no radio. And no food at the health centre. They walk home after antenatal visits to look after other children or work in the gardens. We need support, and we need it in the form of a small plane, a training programme for our village health volunteers.
“We need medical help this are some of the things we need.”