PMGH takes on child birth load

HOSPITALS and clinics under the National Capital District health authority do not have birthing facilities, an official says.
Port Moresby General Hospital (PMGH) chief executive officer Dr Paki Molumi said yesterday that this was the reason why most pregnant women went to PMGH to deliver their babies.
“PMGH has 24 beds in the labour ward that caters for delivery of an average of 40-plus babies a day. “The labour ward is full to the maximum each day that a few pregnant women are forced to deliver their babies on the floor,” he said.
Dr Molumi said last year, 14,141 babies were delivered from 14,133 women.
“Of that number, there were 175 sets of twins and four triplets at the PMGH labour ward,” he added.
“In 2021, 14,141 babies were delivered from 13,979 women. A high percentage of the pregnant women that visit PMGH labour ward are women who have not attended antenatal clinic sessions with a trained midwives, obstetricians and gynaecologists before presentation in labour,” Dr Molumi said.
He said this presented a challenge for PMGH doctors and midwives who had to deal with unforseen issues at delivery.
“This also presents difficulty in admission of these pregnant women in an already full labour ward, where the mother and babies cannot be given the maximum care required leading to catastrophic results like death of the new born from birth asphyxia,” he said.
Dr Molumi said unbooked mothers sometimes had sick babies or conditions that put stress on deliveries.
“PMGH also admits labour referrals from Gulf and Central which contribute to 12 per cent of babies having complications which require special care nursery admission,” he said.
Dr Molumi said providing birthing facilities at the National Capital District (NCD) health facilities supported by PMGH was a priority.
“While the Government is looking to improve health facilities by building level five hospitals for NCD and Central, PMGH will not deny any patient seeking services at PMGH facilities despite the workload,” he said.