Delivering babies under the torch light is a common sight in most rural health settings in Papua New Guinea and Teleformin Rural Hospital in Sundaun Province is no exception.
The hospital’s solar power system failed seven years ago and midwives here have been delivering babies under the glow of mobile phones and torches.
The arrival of babies at most times comes at the wee hours of the night, sending mothers and midwives into a mud rush, scrambling for light and water.
A local midwife at Telefomin Rural Hospital, Judith Charles, shares that her job gets difficult when there are no lights. She has no choice but to resort to the use of a mobile phone and torchlights.
“This can be with the assistance of medical staff where one holds the torch light while the other delivers the baby. But, when there is no assistance, you have no choice but to hold the phone in your mouth while you deliver a baby.
“This is a rural hospital, and we have to operate in any way possible even when there is no electricity or water, and we are doing it with our hearts to save lives. So, we improvise to save people”, said Judith.
Mission Aviation fellowship saw the immense hardships midwives go through to deliver babies here and helped recently to investigate the fault with the hospital’s solar power system and discovered that the panels needed a complete replacement.
They stepped in to carry out necessary maintenance work and restored the supply of power to the hospital until a permanent solution was put in place.
“It has been a struggle for the nurses in the hospital especially during the night. Now that their solar system has been restored, they can be able to work without difficulties in the night to help the patients, especially the pregnant mothers during childbirth,” MAF Technologies officer, Nason Lukio said.
Hospital’s Finance and Administration Manager, Satie Salukeng, said; “At least, we have ample lighting, which is crucial to the safety and hygiene of the medical staff and patients; given that we used to operate in the dark with phone torches, having even a few hours of light in the hospital at night is a step forward”.
The rural hospital serves approximately 700 to 800 patients every month. It covers a ver 60,000 people in the Telefomin district.