Midwives needed to meet growth

By PETER ESILA and ANGELA PAUL
Papua New Guinea needs midwives, delegates to Christian Health Services conference have been told.
Registrar of the PNG Nursing Council Dr Nina Joseph said the country was no way near the average number needed, compared to other Pacific countries.
“Something has to be done to address this. We do not have enough trained midwives for the growing population,” she said.
“There is a need to support professional development and a skill-mix curriculum to meet health securities and standards.
“We need more training facilities to strengthen professional development. The current institutes providing midwife training are in need of a curriculum review and improved quality improvement processes.”
The Nursing Council estimated that the total number of registered midwives in 2016 was 721. Data for 2017 is yet to be finalised because new graduates were yet to be registered.
Paula Puawe, a midwifery lecturer at the University of Goroka and coordinator of the midwifery course programme, said the 800 midwives was not enough.
“Some of those 800 could be people like me who do not provide care to women and babies for seven or eight hours a day because I lecture.”
“We have 733 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, which is like 1500 to 2000 women (dying) every year.”