SoroptiVoiceBLOG

Welcome to SI's special SoroptiVoice blog series, bringing you stories from Papua New Guinea, where this year's President's December 10th Appeal is taking place.  These stories paint a poignant picture of what life is like for women in PNG, with a focus on pregnancy and mothers.  There are many SI activities and materials for International Human Rights Day & this year's SI focus on women's right to safe motherhood, in particular access to skilled birth attendants.  Please explore our website and social media sites to learn more and to find out how you can take action too!    

The Mothers of Lower Watut

Lower Watut is a village on the Watut River in a gold mining area in the mountains of Morobe Province.  Access to this area is along the river by raft or canoe.  The village has its own traditions and practices concerning many aspects of life, and this is true of pregnancy and childbirth. 

When a woman gets close to giving birth, her husband builds a canopy in their house garden, an area away from the village.  She goes to the garden with her mother, and the village birthing attendant accompanies them.  The woman gives birth and she stays with her mother under this canopy in the garden for 3 to 4 months.  Her mother stays to look after her.

After this time, she returns to the village but is still not allowed into her house.  She must either live under her house or next to the firewood house.  There she stays for a further month.  At the end of this month, she is thought to be clean so is allowed to go into her house to take up normal life again.  There is not a big ceremony when the mother returns to her house.  The women from the church simply arrive, bathe and dress the baby and accompany her back into her home.

The reason for a pregnant woman’s banishment from her home and the village at the time she is to give birth is that she is considered to be unclean and a danger to the men in the village. It is thought she would pollute the village and bring illness to her husband and other males, especially if they were to have any contact with her blood.

This traditional birthing practice leaves the women and the babies very vulnerable.  The baby is not checked by trained personnel and many die from lack of knowledge of simple procedures that would otherwise have saved their lives.   

If there are complications with the delivery and the woman needs to be taken to a medical centre, she has to undergo a rigorous journey to seek help.  First, she has to be taken to the river.  The men need to make a bush stretcher for this part of the journey and men who are willing to risk possible contamination from blood are selected to carry her down the bush tracks to the river.  The woman’s husband can’t be one of these as the risk is seen to be too great. 

Once at the river, a canoe has to be hired for the next part of the journey.  The swiftly flowing river takes them as far as a track that will enable them to reach the main road.  Another long walk to the road follows this.  From there, transport to the nearest medical centre needs to be hired. 

The cost of such a journey is prohibitive for many families, so help is not sought and is the reason why the maternal mortality figures in mountainous areas such as this is so high.