My name is Angela and I am 44 years old. I live in a village in Central Province that is a four-hour drive from Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea’s capital.
I have five children. My youngest child is four months old; he is the only one who has had all his routine vaccinations. The other four children have only had some of their routine vaccinations.
Before ChildFund Papua New Guinea came to my village, it was hard to get my children vaccinated. Our closest health facility is a one-hour walk from my home. If we are lucky they have vaccines in stock and my children receive their immunisations.
When vaccines are out of stock, the nurse refers us to the regional health centre, which is another three hours by foot.
I am not able to do the eight-hour walk to the health centre and back to my village with my children, so I just return home.
Since ChildFund began a maternal, child health and nutrition outreach program in my village, I have been depending on that for my baby to receive his routine immunisations.
I don’t worry about the long walk. ChildFund brings the health workers from the clinics to outreach sites in my village. I take my five children there.
I have been diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB) and I am supported by one of ChildFund’s community health volunteers.
She visits me every day and encourages me to take my medicine. She says TB is curable and I have to diligently take the medication to fully recover.
She encourages me to go to the outreach services and get my children vaccinated.
When ChildFund PNG staff found Theresa, she was lying on the side of the road with her newly delivered baby in her arms.
Family members had assisted Theresa as she gave birth in the middle of the night without medical instruments, lighting or health professionals – conditions which are far too common in Papua New Guinea.
In labour and walking
Like so many mothers in remote villages in Papua New Guinea, Theresa’s journey to the closest health clinic proved too long.
She started walking at about 5pm
after preparing dinner for her six children and leaving them with her mother.
Earlier in the day Theresa had
experienced cramps and remembered the nurse at Waima Health Clinic had advised
her to deliver at the health centre.
This was her seventh pregnancy and
the nurse had advised Theresa that she was a high-risk mother and might have
some complications if she delivered her baby at home.
Despite her preparations, Theresa
knew she would not make it to the clinic that night. She stopped at her
sister’s house, hoping to stay for the night before continuing the walk the
following morning.
“Although the cramps had become
stronger, I thought I could make it through the night,” Theresa says.
“I was going into my eighth month,
so I didn’t think I would give birth yet. But after a while I couldn’t take the
pain any longer and I told my husband and sister to take me to Waima.”
How ChildFund’s delivery kits helped keep Theresa safe
Her brother-in-law rushed ahead to the clinic, where ChildFund staff and nurses from a nearby regional health centre were asleep following a day doing community outreach programs in remote villages.
The clinic was stocked with delivery kits donated by ChildFund donors. Nurses Fabianna and Mary grabbed these before leaving the centre in search of Theresa.
“When we arrived it was dark, so
the driver reversed the vehicle into the bush and we used the light from the
truck,” says Fabianna.
“Theresa had already given birth so
we assisted her to deliver the placenta and cleaned her and her baby.”
These delivery kits contain a plastic groundsheet to give birth on, soap to wash hands, gauze to wipe a newborn babies’ eyes, and a sterilised blade to cut the umbilical cord.
These reduce the risks of infection
and possible death for both mother and child.
Seven births, none at a health clinic
ChildFund Papua New Guinea encourages all mothers to go to health clinics where they can give birth with the assistance of skilled birth attendants but many mothers here do not have the opportunity.
None of Theresa’s babies have been
born at a health clinic.
Her first-born son, now 12 years old, was born on the road while Theresa was walking to a health centre. She gave birth to her five other children at home in a small hut built away from the family home, which is the tradition in her part of Papua New Guinea.
Theresa’s mother assisted her with
the deliveries, using a razor blade they had bought at the roadside market to
cut the umbilical cords.
How ChildFund is helping reduce deaths in childbirth
ChildFund and its partners are working to improve health centres in remote villages. Our health programs in Papua New Guinea is supported by the Australian Government through the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP).
In 2018, ChildFund installed a
solar fridge and solar panels at the Waima Health Clinic so vaccinations could
be stored. Theresa and her baby were immunised using vaccines stored here.
