To travel into the main township of Kiunga, Western Province from the rural village of  Membok, it would take a person six hours to travel by boat on the Fly River. Hiring a boat for a return trip would cost a local person PGK800. 

This is the dilemma a mother in rural Western Province has to go through just to acquire basic health services. With the impact of the geographical location and distance and the lack of proper road networks, pregnant mothers do not visit health centres for antenatal check-ups and to have supervised delivery. 

Sr. Philomene Sanduku, Health Manager at the Daru-Kiunga Catholic Diocese, spoke on how this dilemma changed and how the number of supervised births improved through the Safe Motherhood program supported and initiated by UNFPA in 2021. 

“Four Health facilities were selected to implement the Safe Motherhood Program: Kungim, Tarakbits, Matkomnai and Membok Health Subcenters. They were selected because of their geographical location and their proximity to the remotest villages. This meant a pregnant mother could reach these health facilities in a much shorter time than having to travel to Kiunga. “

“Mother and Baby bundles were part of the incentives under the Safe Motherhood Program where baby clothes, napkins, baby dishes, lotions and other essentials were provided for the baby as well as towels, slippers, sanitary napkins, buckets for the mothers who came for supervised delivery within these selected facilities.”

According to Sr. Philomene, these mother and baby bundles were used to encourage mothers to come for antenatal check-ups and supervised deliveries at the health facilities.

“In 2019, there were only 154 supervised deliveries at the Catholic health facilities in Kiunga. However, after the introduction of the Safe Motherhood Program, these same health facilities recorded  803 safe deliveries by 2023.”

“The Matkomnai health sub-centre recorded 90 mothers who had safe deliveries as  compared to only 38 mothers in 2019.”

This support has had an impact on the maternal health indicators of the populations that the four Catholic church health facilities serve in rural communities of the Fly River. The Catholic Church Health Services acknowledges the provision of the mother and baby bundles by UNFPA and the training provided for health service providers during the implementation of the Safe Motherhood Program.