28 August 2014
Australia equips trainee midwives to save lives
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Councillor Development Cooperation at the Australian High Commission, Dr Geoff Clark handover over a midwifery kit to trainee Marina Paike |
A group of young trainee midwives have been equipped with specia list tools for providing life-saving supervised births in rural Papua New Guinea.
The 88 trainees in Port Moresby and Goroka recently received midwifery kits as part of their Bachelor of Midwifery scholarship provided by the Australia Awards Pacific Scholarships.
The trainees will use the tools including baby scales and a Fetal Doppler, which is used to locate and listen for the fetal heart, during rural training placements in September.
Trainee Marina Paike from Central Province was among the trainees at the University of PNG who received the midwifery tool kits.
“Sometimes using the fetal scope can be uncomfortable for the mother when we are trying to get the fetal heart sound and it can be very faint,” Ms Paike said.
“But with the Doppler it will detect it very well. There is also a bag and mask forresuscitation of babies which I can use.”
Counsellor Development Cooperation at the Australian High Commission, Dr Geoff Clark, presented kits to students at the University of Papua New Guinea. Dr Clark said PNG and Australia know that skilled supervised births will save mothers and children during childbirth.
“Part of this larger effort is to ensure not only are there more well trained health staff in PNG, but they have the necessary tools to do their jobs,” said Dr Clark.
Australia is training up to 500 midwives through the Australia Awards Pacific Scholarships program from 2012 to 2015. Australia’s assistance is also refurbishing four midwifery schools in PNG and building a fifth school to expand capacity to train midwives in quality conditions. Australia also supports clinical midwifery facilitators who work with teachers and students at the schools to improve teaching quality and produce confident graduates.