WENDY STEIN thought local custom was the reason why women in Papua New Guinea did not name their babies for many months after they were born.
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‘‘I would say to them, ‘What’s your baby’s name?’ and they would say ‘No name’,’’ Ms Stein said.
It was only after the Salamander Bay woman had been in Papua New Guinea for a short period in 2005 that she learned the grim reality.
‘‘Most of them don’t name their babies for a long time because they expect them to die,’’ she said.
This month Ms Stein took ownership of a blue-water vessel, the Kula Spirit, which she will take to Papua New Guinea in November to start a new phase in her work with Rotary Australia, and a project established by Salamander Bay Rotary Club.
She will run a floating clinic in conjunction with the Milne Bay Health Authority to provide birth control implants in the arms of women on isolated islands off Papua New Guinea.
The implants allow women to space their babies and reduce both mother and infant mortality rates.
‘‘It’s just terrible that on Australia’s doorstep five women die each day giving birth, and 75 babies in every 1000 die before they reach the age of five,’’ Ms Stein said.
In the past two years, the registered charity she established in Papua New Guinea in association with Rotary Australia’s World Community Service, Spacim Pikinini, has provided birth control implants for 40,000 women.
Last week, 697 women received implants in West New Britain.
‘‘The women are desperate for family planning,’’ Ms Stein said.
‘‘Many of them cry when they know they can have some control over the number of babies they have.
‘‘It is a different culture. We’ve had many stories of women who are bashed by their husbands if they say no to sex, so they become pregnant and risk their lives.’’
Last week, a mother of 10 children who knew nothing about family planning was in tears after receiving an implant.
Another woman, 25, who had the first of her six children when she was 14, was also in tears after the simple implant procedure.
Ms Stein’s run-ins last year with Alotau-Sideia Bishop Rolando Santos, who opposes birth control, ended when senior health authorities supported Ms Stein’s work.
News that Pope Francis was allowing priests to forgive women who had abortions was welcome, but ‘‘if the Catholic Church let women plan their families with birth control they wouldn’t be having abortions’’, Ms Stein said.
‘‘Village abortion is one of the biggest killers of women in Papua New Guinea, and many are Catholic.
‘‘It can all be avoided with a $10 implant.’’
The Kula Spirit, which is moored at Nelson Bay, will mean a safer journey between islands, after several dinghy capsizes.
