WUNRN
http://www.wunrn.com

PAPUA NEW GUINEA WOMEN SUFFER HIGH RATE OF DEATH DURING BIRTH

By Frank Asaeli

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (The National, July 12) - Papua New Guinea’s maternal mortality is amongst the worst in the world and represents one of PNG’s greatest development challenges.

President of the PNG Medical Society Professor Mathias Sapuri said this while giving the keynote address at the commemoration breakfast to mark the World Population Day at Crowne Plaza yesterday in Port Moresby.

He said PNG’s concerns about population in PNG start with the quality of services available for starting the journey of life.

"It is worth considering why a natural human phenomenon such as childbirth should take the lives of our sisters and mothers so often," Sapuri said. "However, it is already well known that maternal mortality in PNG is amongst the worst in the world and represents one of PNG’s greatest development challenges."

He said responsibility for maternal health began before pregnancy with family planning. "Male and female partners should be encouraged to plan the starting of a family rather than allow it to occur by accident." Sapuri said planning could only occur through open, honest and regular communication between partners. He also said available statistics on the state of maternal mortality in PNG were expected to improve once the 2006 Demographic and Health Survey results were released in November.

"The last reliable estimation of the maternal death ratio in PNG was made as part of the National Demographic Health survey of 1996 and showed a figure of 370 deaths per 100,000 live births, about 720 maternal deaths per year," Departmental Head of Obstetrics at the UPNG School of Medicine and Health Sciences Professor Glen Mola said.

[PIR editor’s note: According to the World Health Organization, the ratio of maternal mortality per 100,000 live births in the year 2000 was highest in Africa (830), followed by Asia (330), Oceania (240), Latin America and the Caribbean (190), and the developed countries (20). In the United States, the ratio was 17 deaths per 100,000 live births.]

He also said a new demographic health survey was carried out at the end of last year, but the analysis of the figures was still with the National Statistical Office.

"We are all waiting with bated breath to find out if it has gone up or down in the intervening 10-year period," Mola said. He added the men should be much more involved in planning pregnancy, accompany their wives to the antenatal clinic and to the labor ward to assist and support them during labor. Mola said men should seriously consider being the ones to have the ‘pasim rop’ operation (no knife vasectomy) when the family had reached completion.

The theme for this year’s World Population Day is Men as Partners in Maternal Health.





================================================================
To leave the list, send your request by email to: wunrn_listserve-request@lists.wunrn.com. Thank you.