Professor Glen Mola, Head of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Papua New Guinea’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences, highlighted some of the challenges facing women and girls when it comes to sexual and reproductive health in a high-level panel discussion hosted by United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Marie Stopes.
One of those issues he stressed was unwanted and unplanned pregnancies which can lead to an unstable and incomplete family unit.
He spoke on his experiences seeing women and girls seeking medical assistant without a steady partner.
“Pregnancies do better when there’s support.”
“We’ve seen women and girls coming in to get medical assistance and when we inquire of their marital status, there’s usually no stable marital arrangement.”
Mola stated that most of these women are not accessible pre-pregnancy.
He expressed his views saying that the health sector is also not providing enough assistance to women and girls in the country.
“The health sector is focusing on sophisticated tertiary care, high-tech procedures which may help one or two individuals.”
“Meanwhile we have to take care of 16, 000 women having a baby annually”
He emphasized that babies need their mothers as well as their fathers.
“If we keep having children by chance, our society will disintegrate.”
“We’re going to have a dysfunctional country.”