Village officials lack gear

By LULU MAGINDE
VILLAGE birth attendants in Morobe lack proper medical equipment and expertise to handle complicated births, a women’s leader says.
Gilam Michael, former Labuta local level government (LLG) women’s president and a trained village birth attendant of 15 years, told
The National that of the 33 LLGs in Morobe, each ward had at least three attendants, who lacked recognition and Government support.
Gilam said there were no proper medical or birthing kits for an estimated 1,500-plus birth attendants or midwives in the province.
“I’ve noticed that there isn’t proper training for the birth attendants in the village who have miscarriages, still births or post-partum depression,” she said.
“They even lack essential birthing kits containing rubber gloves and sterilised surgical equipment to cut a baby’s umbilical cord.”
Gilam said she had previously called on the government to train these women in Morobe’s 10 districts and to provide them an allowance but nothing had been done.
According to Morobe’s acting director of public health Kelly Misere, there was an ongoing programme run by the Family Health Services office, where they trained village health volunteers. “Our people run the training but I’m not sure on the exact number of volunteers because they’re more like a branch of the Morobe health authority.”
Michael’s plea to expecting mothers was to have K20 ready to give to the attendants or volunteers as a sign of appreciation.