Purari mothers receive maternal and birthing training from InterOil

GULF province is one of the country’s least developed provinces with minimal basic services and infrastructure.
Schools and government offices are severely underfunded while hospitals and health care services are almost non-existent.
Home to one of the largest river system catchments in Papua New Guinea, the task of providing these basic services to the rural and remote areas in Gulf becomes more challenging with the natural wetlands, high rainfall and lack of transport and infrastructure.
The Purari River drains the central highlands in the north and flows down through gorges into the lowlands and delta of Gulf province, before it empties its muddy silt into the Coral Sea.
The main river system changes its name three times from Waghi, in Western Highlands province to Tua in the middle of its journey and finally Purari River, further downstream in Gulf province.
Along the Purari delta in the Baimuru district, is the Pawaea community made up of sparsely scattered villages of Poroi, Subu, Ura, Wabo and Uraru.
There are only two aid posts in this area, one at Wabo government station and the other at Poroi village. To get to these aid posts, villagers walk or paddle on dugout canoes for several days.
Pregnant women are particularly affected by lack of maternal health information and awareness and are only brought to the aid post when they are about to die.
Antenatal, post-natal and general baby and maternal health were unheard of as the community clung on to traditional beliefs that mothers should deliver their own babies in the bush. The menfolk believed that pregnant women must stay in the jungle until they give birth for the sight of blood could cause the men to get asthma and even die.
In many instances, InterOil Limited has airlifted many women in these dire situations to the nearest hospitals in Kapuna which is normally 5-6 hours by dinghy, Kerema General Hospital, Mt Hagen General Hospital and even Port Moresby.
It also assists with the transportation of building materials for community health workers’ staff houses and airlifts the community health workers to pick medical supplies from main hospitals in Kerema and Port Moresby.
Recently, InterOil Limited initiated the village birth attendants (VBA) training, aimed at building a safer mother and child health for the Pawaea community.
This programme is part of company’s community health initiatives. Under this programme, it has also built an onsite clinic for free medical treatment and antenatal care for expectant mothers at its Herd base camp. The site doctor also visits the villages providing free medical treatment. 
The objectives of the VBA training were to impart the basic knowledge and skills on maternal health and birthing, reinforce the basic understanding on family planning and parenting and to bring awareness on HIV/AIDS, particularly during child delivery.
To carry out this programme successfully, InterOil engaged the Gulf Christian Health Services (Kapuna Hospital) to train a total of 16 women from Poroi, Subu, Ura, Wabo and Uraru, in skills of managing obstetrical and neonatal emergencies.
Sister Ovalai Koivi, who is the sister in charge of Kapuna Hospital’s maternity wing, conducted the training – imparting knowledge and skills to the local women to perform their roles in their respective villages as trained village birth attendants with skills similar to that of urban hospital midwives.
Topics covered also included the anatomy of the reproductive system, normal pregnancy and labour, routine antenatal referrals and danger signs in pregnancy, placenta delivery and immediate care, danger signs during labour and delivery, danger signs after delivery, post-natal care, hygiene, nutrition, family planning and keeping birth records.
“There were also other women in the community who would just come in to sit in through the sessions because they were interested and I encouraged them to sit in and learn,” said InterOil’s community affairs officer Ruth Kambowa.
She added that there were night sessions as well to revisit topics that the trainees wanted deliberated on.
“Mothers from Uraru and Poroi joined us a day later due to bad weather and flooding which restricted dinghies from operating,” said Kambowa.
After the training, the women graduated with certificates and received village birth attendants’ training manual and birth kits.
A success story, the training had positively changed the community’s traditional ways of thinking on child birth, particularly the menfolk!
“In our local Pawaea culture and beliefs, we men don’t allow women to deliver babies in the homes – they must retreat to the thick jungles and deliver babies themselves because we men may develop asthmatic problems and die gradually. We have now realised the importance of caring for our pregnant women and thank InterOil for initiating this programme,’ said Matio Kaowai, a village committee member.
A young mother who attended the training, Aea Aua said: ‘This training is an eye opener. Thank you InterOil. I delivered my first child in the bush but this training has given me knowledge in delivering babies in good, clean and hygienic conditions’.
The Pawaian community leaders, village councillors from Poroi, Subu, Ura and Wabo villages attended the graduation, showing support for their womenfolk.
“So far after the training, there have been five successful births attended to by the trained village birth attendants and evaluation will be carried out early next year. Awareness is ongoing and more birth kits have been purchased to continue this campaign,” said Kambowa.
As InterOil’s community health initiative rolls out to these remote communities in Gulf province where government services are non-existent, it is also helping in achieving Papua New Guinea’s Medium Term Development Plan as per the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals to improve maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases and reduce child mortality.
The writer is the Corporate Communications Officer – InterOil