It is December 10th – Human Rights Day! This is the final day of the special SoroptiVoice blog series, bringing you
stories from Papua New Guinea, where this year’s President’s December
10th Appeal is taking place.  These stories paint a poignant picture of
what life is like for women in PNG, with a focus on pregnancy and
mothers.  There are many SI activities and materials for International
Human Rights Day & this year’s SI focus on women’s right to safe
motherhood, in particular access to skilled birth attendants.  Please
explore our website and social media sites to learn more and to find out
how you can take action too!

 

 

Grace’s story

Grace
lives in a small village near Ramu.  She
has a 3 month old baby, her first.

Since
she married, Grace has lived in her husband’s village in the mountains some
hours away from Ramu.  She chose to come
to live with her mother before her baby was due so she would be close to a
trained midwife at the local Health Centre.

Grace had come down for antenatal check-ups during her pregnancy, so she was familiar
with the Centre.  Even then, her birthing
experience did not run quite as smoothly as she had expected.

At
the onset of her contractions, she went by car to the Health Centre.  It was 8pm and the centre was locked and in
darkness.  The Centre had been without
electricity for 3 months.  The
electricity had been cut off because of a huge unpaid bill.

There
was no midwife there either.  The midwife
was called and arrived at the Centre an hour later.  On examining Grace, she declared everything
was progressing well and told Grace ‘to exercise’.  So, in the moonlight, Grace, accompanied by
her mother and sister, walked round and round the Centre for the next 2 hours.

Her
waters broke, so Grace went back into the Centre to give birth.  With her mother and sister taking it in turns
to hold a torch for the midwife, a healthy baby girl was delivered.

Grace
was fortunate that she had the option of attending the Centre for the birth of
her baby.  Her husband is in employment,
so she could pay for the ante-natal check-ups and the birth at the Centre.  The cost of a pregnancy in the rural areas in
PNG is a major factor in every pregnant woman’s decision concerning antenatal
check ups and where to give birth.  High
unemployment rates, living long distances from health centres, the very
difficult mountainous terrain, lack of roads and transport coupled with the
scarcity of trained midwives, are all compounding factors in the high levels of
maternal mortality in this developing country.