2000 women die every year – just giving birth

CLOSE to 2000 women die during delivery in Papua New Guinea every year and 6000 infants perish before they are four weeks old.
United Nations Children Fund health official Dr Ghanashyam Sethy said the deaths were preventable yet it remained a global problem. “This is mainly because we do not have a specific programme or intervention to tackle reduction of neonatal deaths,” he said.
Sethy said neonatal mortality had virtually remained stagnant for more than 20 years.
According to Unicef reports, two thirds of neonatal deaths are associated with high-risk pregnancies, labour and delivery and many happen due to poor access to child health services.
Although there are many factors, 80 per cent of neonatal deaths are due to birth asphyxia; infections and pre-maturity, the report say.
In addition, hypothermia is a cause of death. Neonates continue to die due to lack of simple, cost-effective care such as warmth, breastfeeding support, basic care for infections and breast-feeding difficulties.
About 40 per cent of rural primary healthcare facilities were closed or partially functional.
Those that operate were often run by churches, non-governmental organisations or the private sector.
Many rural aid posts have closed due to low motivation for staff to work in remote, financially unstable and dangerous environments.
Even with the recourse to outreach service delivery for communities from existing health facilities, the high cost of transportation and lack of funding impede effective service delivery to the remote population, the reports say.