Although the latest UN Statistics reported a trend that there are fewer women dying from complications of pregnancy and childbirth, globally there are still 1,000 women dying a day due to pregnancy and childbirth complications. That is like two giant jumbo jets full of women crashing down daily or 41 women dying every hour and yet no one hears about this. It’s not breaking news. But if a small 12-passenger plane crashes the news is featured on TV around the globe.” (Julie Marsaban, SISWP)

The death of a child is a tragedy.  The World is 10 years into a 15 year action plan known as the Millennium Development Goals. The current SISWP Federation Project – Birthing in the Pacific (BIP) established in 2010, will focus on Goal 5 – Improve Maternal Health. One of the biggest killers of children under five is the failure of neonatal care, partly due to the lack of skilled birth attendants and appropriate maternal advice. The initial focus of this project will be upskilling and professionally developing midwives as a way of reducing the very high rate of infant and maternal mortality in PNG.