Soldier celebrates 27th birthday to appreciate midwives in Mendi hospital

By PETER WARI
VERY few people realise the hard work midwives have to do to deliver children into this world.
Even fewer ever remember to thank them somehow years on.
Billy Begamann, from Rabaraba village in Milne Bay, visited the Mendi Provincial Hospital maternity ward yesterday with a birthday cake and celebrated his 27th birthday. It was where he was born.
Eight midwives from the maternity ward and others from rural health services contributed and celebrated the birthday.
The young man, who is now a soldier posted to the Papua New Guinea Defence Force Engineering Battalion, was born at the hospital in 1992.
His parents and first-born sister moved into the province from Mt Hagen in 1990. His father Luke Begamann worked at Westpac.
“If you are alive today, thank a midwife and respect health facilities. For those of us living in provinces with easy access to a skilled midwife during pregnancy and delivery, we take things for granted,” he said.
Begamann said for the past 26 years, he had been celebrating is birthday with his family, friends and colleagues but it was time to say thank you to the midwives and the hospital and spend a little time with them.
He said in 1994 when he was two, his father transferred to Kimbe, West New Britain, and they kept moving. In 2017 he was accepted to the Papua New Guinea Defence Force and moved to Goldie Barracks in Port Moresby.
“I moved to Lae and stayed at Igam Barracks until this year when I was called for my first operations in Southern Highlands, the place where I was born and am happy to celebrate my birthday at the hospital,” he said.