Mother’s giving birth on cold floors, Prof. Mola describes it as ‘Crisis’

At the Port Moresby General Hospital, mothers are giving birth on the floor.

Professor Glen Mola, a senior obstetrics and gynecology specialist at the Port Moresby General Hospital said this dire medical emergency unfolding at the National Capital District’s primary labor ward is increasing every day.

“It’s getting worse, It’s a crisis.” Prof. Mola said.

He said the facility struggles to cope with an influx of patients that much exceeds its physical capacity.

Prof. Mola said the ward which contains just 24 operational beds is currently forced to manage an average of 50 births every single day.

The resulting shortage has left lots of women without proper accommodations during childbirth.

"It's full. There are three women on the floor. There's another 22 in the admission area that are looking at me very hopeful that they're going to get some care in the near future." Prof. Mola told NBC Online.

While citing data trends stretching back through national censuses from the 1960s to the 2000s Prof. Mola said, "We know what our population is doing. You don't need to be a specialist demographer or something to see what's happening to the population. And we've been talking to various governments and they just ignore us.

"We warned them 30 years ago this was going to happen, but they took no notice of us," Prof Mola said.

Dr. Mola noted that in 2024, the hospital documented that out of 17,000 total admissions, a staggering 7,000 women had to receive their pregnancy and labor care on the floor. While the data for 2025 is still being finalized, he expects that number to be even higher.

Dr. Mola also stated that in April, the Prime Minister James Marape formally recognized the severity of the overcrowding and allocated emergency funding to construct a temporary 36-bed ward to immediately alleviate pressure on the facility.

He said while the specialist women’s and children’s doctors immediately accepted the offer, the project has been stalled for over a month.

According to Dr Mola, the delay rests entirely on hospital management, which is still evaluating whether to approve the government's intervention.

"The Prime Minister allocated money to build a 36-bed extra ward but the hospital management is still considering whether they think it’s a good idea or not," Dr. Mola said.

"I think we're the only country in the world where a hospital committee has to approve the Prime Minister," he said.

Meanwhile, compounding the frustration, alternative proposals by health executives such as adding a mere four maternal beds to the nearby Gerehu General Hospital have been criticized by frontline doctors as woefully inadequate.

"What are four beds going to do? We've got 50 births a day here. Diverting two to Gerehu is not going to solve our problem," Dr. Mola said.

NBC Online is seeking comments to the hospital management on the progress of the extra 3-bed labor ward.