While investigations continue into the Black Wednesday events, the Port Moresby General Hospital’s (PMGH) Maternity section recorded 50% more deaths of newborns in the month of January than they usually have in a month.
According to PMGH Head of Obstetrics, Gynaecology & Reproductive Health Dr. Glen Mola, their January routine monthly audit recorded a total of 1285 women who gave birth and out of this, a total of 51 babies died.
He said, of this 51, there were 31 fatal deaths in utero (inside the womb), and 20 babies died within a week of birth because of various problems.
“Our audit revealed that about a quarter of the baby deaths were associated with issues around the riots and looting in the city that occurred in the second week of January.”
“This translates to a 50% increase in the number of deaths for the month of January over and above the expected number of deaths that occur in a usual month.”
The reasons that led to the excess deaths were things like;
-mothers were unable to go the hospital to seek care when they experienced pregnancy problems and ended upgoing so late that the baby was already dead in the utero,
-women were unable to go to the hospital for a supervised birth because of security reasons with regards to travel, or
-the mothers did not keep their next appointment to the antenatal clinic in the middle of January, and when they did show up later, they found out that problems like blood pressure had already caused serious damage to the pregnancy.
Dr. Mola said, issues such as health clinics being closed for antenatal and other routine check ups, difficulty with transport in the city or security fears for leaving the house causes difficulties for mother’s which leads to problems like this.