By Colleen Barilae – EM TV News, Port Moresby
Over 200 midwives from across all provinces in Papua New Guinea have gathered today in Port Moresby for a two-day meeting on the maternal care services they provide to their communities, as well as the challenges they go through when helping mothers and pregnant women in rural villages.
The symposium is a first of its kind, and has attracted not only 200 females, but also 20 male midwives.
Also present for the symposium is a group from the Australian College of Midwives.
According to Technical Advisor for Maternity Health in PNG, Dr. Lahui Geita, a Demographic Health Survey (DHS) conducted in 2006 found that 733 out of every 100,000 women in the country die during labour.
Since 1996, when the last DHS was conducted, statistics had increased from approximately 300, to 733.
