InFocus Episode 15 (2026) - WOW Awards & Women’s right to Maternity Protection

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[00:00:21]Welcome to In Focus. In this edition of In Focus, we firstly speak to Tmaya Kramer from Westpak PNG about the Westpak Outstanding Women Awards scheduled for this year. Later on, we speak to Dr. Malon Py, senior obstitrician and gynecologist at the Paradise Private Hospital. We speak to him about the importance of women's rights to maternity protection.

[00:00:48]Taya Kramer, thank you for joining us.

[00:00:51]>> Thank you so much for having me.

[00:00:53]Now firstly Tomaya for our viewers who may not be familiar with the Westpak Outstanding Women Awards could you give us a bit of background? The >> Westpak women awards was started in 2002 and it's really about celebrating um and recognizing the impact of different women in the community, in business, in different industries. Um, it's about celebrating success, the impact that they've made, but also inspiring the next generation of women to be inspired and empowered by some of the changes of some of these women.

[00:01:30]>> Are there specific categories or criteria used? Yeah, there's in in a Westpak women awards, we've got seven different categories uh from the private sector award, we've got public sector award, non-forprofit, entrepreneur award, young achiever award, uh the sustainability award, and the sports and arts advocate award. So each category is designed to focus on a special skill or area of excellence um across the board.

[00:02:00]So, it's a very balanced approach and we encourage nominations from all sorts of different industries to really get a broad view of impact that women have in different communities.

[00:02:14]>> Now, since the awards came into play in 2002, what has changed for women in the workplaces and businesses since then?

[00:02:21]Look, I think being a woman, I know that challenges continue to exist, but we've seen certainly since 2002 and since the awards have have started, we've seen a lot more visibility, a lot more visibility of women in community roles in business and private sector roles, uh, civil society, public sector, and even on the sports field. Um so what we want to do as part of the awards is to encourage more women to participate and demonstrate um areas of impact where they've made a change and they can encourage others to make a difference.

[00:02:58]>> Now Tommoay I understand that uh the nominations are currently ongoing. What are the different categories people should understand and before nominating a woman?

[00:03:07]>> As as we've mentioned there's seven different categories. Um, and really sometimes there'll be nominations that will have different categories that will apply, but we're encouraging nominations where they've made the biggest impact.

[00:03:22]Um, whether it's private sector or public sector um or sustainability or if they're the Young Achiever Awards or sports and arts category. um whether you're nominating yourself and we encourage people to nominate themselves if they feel that they've uh made an impact to the different areas of whether it be community or business or if you're nominating somebody else. Um wherever the closest classification or criteria is we'd encourage um you to select.

[00:03:56]Now looking beyond the scope of the empowerment of women, how do we promote a form of meritocracy that is based on competence as opposed to just gender, age or ethnicity?

[00:04:05]>> Yeah, look, that's a really good question and our awards are really focused on having a measurable demonstrable impact. So when we are looking through nominations or seeking nominations, what we're asking is for people to demonstrate examples where they've they've put in actions and what the impact and outcome is. So we're looking specifically for examples where we can recognize where people have actually made an impact and what that translates to in terms of a result.

[00:04:36]>> In your opinion, what would you say are some of the biggest barriers confronting women empowerment? That's a good question and I think women will continue uh to face various different barriers.

[00:04:48]Uh example whether it be access to um opportunities, access to resources which could include financial or capital or access to just recognition. Um there are ongoing challenges that we've seen but we've seen some positive impact um since the um the ward started in 2002 but what we want to focus on is the opportunities of how we can address some of these barriers. So as part of the award we are providing not just um recognition but also some practical support for example in the form of grants. So each of our category winners uh have 5,000 kina in a grant funding to support whether it be personal development or professional development, but also there's opportunities to network um and share and mentor with other people that have gone before them around some of the successes and challenges that they've faced so we can all learn and move forward.

[00:05:54]>> Is there a notable example or case study that you can share?

[00:05:58]Uh yeah, there is one particular um example of uh the last winner. She is um the CEO and MD of Queen Pads. Um and what she's been able to achieve certainly in the last year working together with Westpak women's awards is being able to to um share successes and encourage more women to become involved.

[00:06:22]she's she was taking the lead in terms of menstrual health care for women which is not always an easy subject to be able to talk to particularly in the media. So she's done a phenomenal job to be able to leverage uh the exposure but also encourage and inspire other women to be involved in community initiatives um certainly for future and I hope people uh have been able to view her success and being able to share some of the media coverage because it is such an inspiring story to get involved in what we can each do in our community and make some changes for impact. Now, finally, what would be your call to the public at large?

[00:07:03]>> I would encourage uh people to nominate um and it's not just women, it's men because it's important that both men and women encourage uh women to step up and nominate uh where there is merit. uh where somebody out there in the public, if you can see a woman, whether it be in the community, in P public sector, on boards, on the on the sports field, if you see them making a positive impact to society, to community, to PNG, I would encourage you to nominate and you can see on uh if you go to our Westpak website, our women um outstanding women's awards, please nominate. Uh the forms are pretty self-explanatory around demonstrating where you've seen somebody take action, what the outcomes have been, how we can how they've been able to demonstrate success. And because we've got seven different categories, the industry and the breadth is quite broad. So we would encourage so many different people to nominate. Nominate yourself, nominate your uh somebody that you know. Um and we'd love to get more nominations. um our competition own uh the event closes at the end of May. Um so we have about six weeks left to encourage everybody to nominate somebody that you can see making an impact in society in in PNG and we'd welcome so many more nominations.

[00:08:32]>> Tommy Mayor, thank you for joining us.

[00:08:34]>> Thank you so much for having me.

[00:08:47]In this session of in focus, we speak to Dr. Marlon Py, senior obstitrician and gynecologist at the Paradise Private Hospital. We talked to him about the importance of women's rights to maternity protection. Dr. Malon Py, thank you for joining us.

[00:09:03]>> It's a pleasure.

[00:09:06]>> Firstly, Dr. Piva, what role does workplace pressure play in shaping maternal mental health outcomes?

[00:09:14]>> It's a burning issue because for one that we have a lot more women working these days uh supporting their families, their husbands and um so they have to work in this modern day society. And so uh one of the things that they have to um perhaps endure is the pressures and stresses that they encounter in in the workplace.

[00:09:42]And uh studies are showing multiple studies are showing that uh this workplace stresses particularly the severe stress is having a an impact on the well-being of not only them the women themselves but also to their babies as well.

[00:10:01]Women will suffer from both physical as well as um emotional psychological stresses and issues that arise uh during pregnancy which are unique to pregnancy.

[00:10:13]There's a large study uh done uh from which about 38 papers showed that uh stresses in pregnancy uh work rellated stresses have an effect on u producing or resulting in high blood pressures. We call it preeacclampsia. It also has an effect on the the growth of the the baby itself. So we have small for gestational age babies being born as a result of the stresses that these women face. Now pregnancy starts you know early and then we have a mid part of pregnancy as well as a late um uh part of pregnancy. So during each of those phases of pregnancy uh there's different issues that women face. uh like for instance in the beginning of pregnancy um there is studies have shown these are um Dutch studies that show that uh there is an increased rates of miscarriage amongst women's women who uh who have stresses particularly those that work shifts and um you know it's been shown that when they have two or more nights consecutive nights of uh working shift uh it results in a greater uh tendency to have miscarriages. So there's a lot that goes as far as uh stresses in uh in pregnancy are concerned uh resulting in uh poorer outcomes for both uh women and uh their babies as well. So it does play a significant part in in in the well-being of both babies and their mothers.

[00:11:54]>> Dr. Pivar, have you observed differences in health outcomes between patients with adequate versus inadequate maternity leave? I can recount experiences. I've been in this uh business for about 33 years now. 22 of them being as a specialist as an obstitrician. And uh um there's many many cases I can recount.

[00:12:16]But there's one that stands out in my mind. Uh for instance, there's this lady who had a cesarian section and I I did this myself. Uh a cesarian section for her pregnancy, her initial pregnancy.

[00:12:30]uh because she was under pressure to go back to work. And so when we're talking about pressures, we're talking about both antiatally before they deliver and also pressures after delivery as well because there is this uh phase of of of you know the postpartum. Postpartum means after delivery where they have to care for their their their babies as well, breastfeeding and so forth. And so that adds an extra you know burden on them compared to to perhaps men perhaps women who are not pregnant. And so there was this lady who had a a delivery by cesarian section and because she was pressured to go back to work u for fear of being terminated uh from her work uh she had to go back resulting in her falling pregnant again and she came back the very next year and I remember her in one of the rooms. I went and saw her in the morning uh when I did a ward round and found that um there was a some clear indication that there was something not right with her her uterus. She was having pains between contractions. You know normally women have pains when there is a contraction but in this case she was having pains between contractions.

[00:13:48]And so when I had a feel there was a a clear demarcation of the uterus like a bundle on the top and there was a a separation between the top and the bottom part of the the abdomen. In fact this this woman was was rupturing a uterus. Her uterus had ruptured and we we caught her in time and ordered for the cesarian section. When I took her in to the to the theater, I found that the baby's arm hand was actually sticking out of the the wound uh when we did this. So, it was already it ruptured and the baby was coming out of the wound on its own without us having done the cesarian. If we had waited a bit, she would have uh this baby would have died as a result of that ruptured uterus. uh ruptured uterus is a a rare event, but when it does happen, the consequences are bad both for mother and and baby.

[00:14:41]And so uh you can see perhaps if this woman had had uh adequate rest time at home to recover, maybe she would have also thought about the the contraceptive aspect of things so that she would have had some family planning uh medicines or methods to use so that she wouldn't have fallen pregnant immediately after that other u cesarian or pregnancy she just had. So that's that's like an extreme case that I saw. uh but it would have shown uh it shows clearly that these women need to have adequate time to recover. For anyone who has had a baby uh you need at least 2 years to recover from that pregnancy and we're talking about a normal pregnancy not a cesarian section. So a normal pregnancy uh requires about 2 years and so that means their iron stores get replenished tissue repair happens uh over that time frame.

[00:15:38]So if they fell pregnant too soon it adds stress on their bodies such that um they um suffer from more anemia, blood shortage. They require possibly a transfusion, a blood transfusion.

[00:15:55]uh they also are more susceptible to things like high blood pressures and diabetes because they haven't given their body adequate rest from that initial pregnancy they've had. So yes there are very uh and if you know um we've also seen amongst women who are working that the rates of miscarriages are a little bit higher than uh someone who's completely like a housewife stays at home no stress from work. We find that women who are are working have a lot higher rates of miscarriages and it's related to the stresses they encounter in the workplace.

[00:16:40]>> Now Dr. Pava looking at the broader scheme of things how do current maternity leave policies in your region align with medical recommendations?

[00:16:50]Right. So um the ILO uh International Labor Organization in about 2000 came up with a a a recommendation worldwide which many many countries have adopted and article 1831 91 talks about um providing maternity leave up to about 14 weeks and not only maternity leave for 14 weeks. Uh that's it also includes like cash incentives um allowing time for them to breastfeed their babies and taking time off. They must be allowed to uh take time off even if employed to to to feed their babies breastfeed which is the recommended way of doing things rather than bottle feeding. and also for them to just giving them time to recover from their pregnancy that they've just had. And uh those are the things that the International Labor Organization have advocated for and recommended to the world. And and really if you look at all the countries in the world, most of them have taken this on board. And interestingly, there's only two countries that have not done this, and that's PNG and the USA. of all places USA they have uh not taken this on board. So currently our policy stands at um for private companies it's 6 weeks of unpaid maternity leave.

[00:18:25]uh uh the government our government have for the public sector changed that uh in 1995 and so we have a bit more um uh this there's a bit more a better condition for women who are in the public sector compared to those in the private sector. So it's it's a it's something we need to change. There's a glaring difference between public and private sectors in PNG and the laws are outdated. We need to really look at this to change the laws so that we are up to speed with everyone else in the world.

[00:18:58]>> Now Dr. Piva, in terms of the relevant legislations that govern maternity leave in Papa Newu Guinea, clause 100 of the employment act 1978 addresses pregnancy and maternity leave and grants only 6 weeks of unpaid leave.

[00:19:14]This duration is far below the ILO's minimum recommendation of 14 weeks paid maternity leave.

[00:19:21]What changes do you want to see in maternity leave policy from a health standpoint?

[00:19:27]>> 14 weeks is what's mentioned by ILO. Um this gives uh women adequate time to handle the changes that happen during pregnancy. You know, it's not only a physical thing, you know, uh during pregnancy, if you start from the very very early part of pregnancy, um their their bodies physically start changing.

[00:19:50]um you get nausea, vomiting, we call it morning sickness. Yeah. Uh it's nothing a non-pregant women will not face. Uh and for that matter, men don't face that morning sickness. So it's something that we need to So that's that's morning sickness. As as time goes on, the tummy gets bigger. There's more weight gain.

[00:20:11]There's a 50% increase in their blood volume. Uh they get more edimeus swollen. their body gets swollen. Uh they have to change, you know, their clothes don't fit them anymore like they used to before. Um they start having pains, you know, hip pains, um lower tummy pains, back ache and and a pregnant woman doesn't face that.

[00:20:37]Sorry, a non-pregant woman doesn't face that. A man will not face that. So these women have to go undergo a lot of changes in their physical body you know changes that happen during pregnancy and so um coming to terms especially for first time women it's a big issue for a first-time woman you know she's had a nice shape body perhaps and this time it it goes totally out of shape and she she has to come to terms with that and and and so for her it psychologically ally plays a lot on her mind to to be able to change her outlook, her attitude and her you know how she views pregnancy. Uh to a point where some of them actually go into depression because of this and so that's a se the mental uh state is in a way that they don't really u it plays a lot and it it it actually um they suffer from mental illness as a result of that.

[00:21:38]So giving them adequate time to prepare for that is I think of paramount importance. So not only that um when they deliver they have to breastfeed their babies and so now from a state where there was no baby sucking on the breast. They they have to feed a baby this time. Yeah. and how do I put a baby on the breast and uh you know how long do I feed baby and all of those things need adjustments and so this place a significant um impact on their mental well-being as well so uh added on to that other economic strains that they have to go through now I have to pay for this you know uh S26 or lactogen or or some extra food or something let's go buy fish or something let's go buy some more chicken which we usually do not buy now we have to buy it because there's a baby we have to feed. So there's economic burdens on them as well. So the adjustments that they have to make is is quite significant and you can imagine if they don't have a paid uh maternity leave as well. Uh it's not a time that anyone would be looking forward to you know I'm going on leave without pay and how do I pay for this? How do I pay for that? So, so if we can have some support from their employer because in the end these people will contribute to the uh well-being of that organization that they work in and if you look after your employees uh they will work well for you. They will look after you as well as it were by giving back to you. So I think that 14 weeks is is is a good thing. Everyone else in the world has taken it up and Papu Nigini needs to take it up as well.

[00:23:26]Particularly for private companies, they will have their say. They might say, "Oh, look, we we are a money-making venture. When we pay for these things, we won't make any money. Uh, you know, we might lose money." But it's been shown worldwide that when you do that, you your gains are uh you make reasonable gains from this uh by looking after your your your employees.

[00:23:52]Dr. Malon Piva, thank you for joining us.

[00:23:55]>> Thank you very much. My pleasure.

[00:23:58]>> Well, viewers, that ends this episode of In Focus. Do join us again next week, Monday, on our regular time slot of 7:00 p.m. Till then, bye for now.

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