Each year on December 10, Human Rights Day, the SI President  launches an appeal that serves our mission of educating, empowering and enabling women and girls. This year, President Alice Wells has chosen to adopt the Birthing in the Pacific project for a second year, providing training and equipment for health professionals and volunteer birth attendants in Papua New Guinea. 

Every day, 3 women die in Papua New Guinea (PNG) due to complications of pregnancy and childbirth.  International evidence shows that most of these deaths could be avoided if skilled birth attendants were available to identify potential problems and provide appropriate treatment.  The Birthing in Pacific project will support training for birth attendants at four levels – clinicians, midwives, Community Health Workers and Village Birth Attendants – as well as providing essential equipment and working to improve facilities and infrastructure.

Soroptimist International Clubs have already raised over US$270000 to support the Birthing in the Pacific project. As a result:

·         15000 obstetric wheels have been printed to help pregnant women calculate their due date and plan their delivery

·         120 Karim Work Bilum items, essential tools for safe deliveries, have been purhcased or donated;

·         24 Village Birth Attendants, 16 doctors and midwives and 7 Community Health workers have attended training programmes

·         90 training dolls and simulators have been purchased

But much more needs to be done. The Australian Government, recognising the desperate need to improve maternity care in the country, committed last week to provide much needed funding for nursing and midwifery scholarships in PNG. There are currently only 278 registered midwives working in the national health system, many nearing retirement age, so more are desperately needed to offer life-saving care to mothers and babies.

“Although this new initiative is welcome, it’s vital that the work of Birthing in Pacific continues”, says BIP Project Manager Janet Askern.  

“We must build on the local partnerships and training programmes that have been developed.  We must ensure that the trainees have the necessary clinical tools and educational resources to enable them to learn and enhance their clinical practice.  We must resource and equip more training programs for volunteer Village Birth Attendants, who play a crucial role supporting pregnant women in remote areas and educating communities about reproductive health.  We need to offer continued support to the PNG Midwives Society so that any new midwives trained are represented by an appropriate professional body.” 

“The involvement of SI clubs in PNG and the partnerships that we have built in the last year put BIP in a unique position to improve women’s chances of a healthy pregnancy and childbirth.  The generous support of Soroptimists worldwide has helped BIP achieve so much already; with your help we can do even more in 2012-13."

More Information

Find resources and background information on the BIP web page

Blog from Meredith Tutumang, SI Lae, about taking BIP to remote village communities.

Birthing in the Pacific: Message from SI President Alice Wells

Birthing in the Pacific Appeal brochure 2012-13

Images

1/ SI Ramu, Village Birth Attendants’ graduation

2/ A Neo-Natalie doll used in the Pacific Emergency Obstetric Care training programme