Press Release: June 7th 2024
A mother with incomplete second stage of labour was safely airlifted to ANGAU Hospital on Wednesday (4th June) thanks to Mountain Area Medical Airlift Foundation.
The not-for-profit air ambulance helicopter service responded to an SOS call by locals who reported that a mother gave birth on Saturday June 1st to a live male infant, however, the placenta was retained since.
Medevac Nurse Audrey Taula said the a community leader Benson Awamu said via phone call that the mother was pale and lost a lot of blood.
“Pilot Jurgen Ruh and myself took off for the flight. The location was at Ainandoa in Menyamya but that was a big area, we had to look for the exact location and the village where the mother was, and it was in the bush somewhere!”
“We asked Awamu to tell the locals to make smoke and wave laplaps at us when they see or hear the sound of the helicopter,” Taula said.
Ruh said despite the challenging weather and the search for the location, they eventually landed to pick up the mother.
“As soon as we landed, I went to see the mother and it was a retained placenta case because the umbilical cord was not clamped and cut,” Taula said.
Taula said the second stage of labour begins with complete cervical dilation and ends with the delivery of the fetus and the cutting of the umbilical cord; “In this case, the fetus was delivered but the umbilical cord was not clamped and cut, and the fetus was still attached to the mother outside the body.”
“This is very dangerous for the mother and the baby and I am so glad we didn’t turn back because of the weather but decided to search for the village.”
Taula asked the guardian Jereta Jereks what had happened, which she recalled “Sampela mama helpim em (Jepedy Kiwi) lo karim pikinini, tasol ol i no katim rop bilong bebi bikos sampela man tok maski long katim, nogut mipela wet longpela taim long kisim halivim na bilum bilong bebi bai bagarap na mama bai indai. Mipela ino save gut olsem na mipela ino katim rop bilong bebi.”
Taula dispelled this village myth and advised Jereks the right procedure to help mothers when such village deliveries happen again.
Jereks confirmed that the village has no trained village birth attendants or volunteers, and the nearest health facility is at Ainandoa Aidpost and Aseki Health Centre, but both are far away and would take days to walk.
The patient, 38 year old Jepedy Kiwi when visited by Taula on Thursday 06th June, she was still admitted at the Gynaecology ward due to infections she developed from the retained placenta.
As for the baby “she was safely separated from her mother and she was a ‘hungry little girl’, well breastfed by her mother,” Taula said.
Both mother and baby will be discharged once the mother gets treatment and recover well.
Mother and baby transferred into the ambulance right after the helicopter landed, for transport to ANGAU Hospital.
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