Gita would have had to walk 30 minutes to reach the hospital. But even if she made it in time, she couldn’t afford the bill. She felt she had no choice but to give birth at home. The only person who could help was her oldest sister, who was visiting her at that time.

Gita’s sister, who had experience in helping people give birth, prepared a razor blade, to cut the umbilical cord, and a bucket of cold water.

As Gita lay on her grass bed, her sister pressed Gita’s belly with both hands while Gita strained to deliver the child. Thankfully, Gita didn’t have to push too much.

After successfully delivering the child, Gita’s sister used the razor blade to cut the umbilical cord. Then she cleaned up Gita’s son by washing the baby with cold water and drying him with a towel. Gita took a bath with cold water to clean herself.

In this way, Gita delivered her first baby, Martin, at home without medical assistance. Her at-home delivery is typical among women in Indonesia’s Papua province.

Most Papuan women still give birth with traditional methods in a honai – a traditional Papuan house made of wood with a grass bed.

Women also prefer to give birth at home because they are afraid of the service from health workers who are not always friendly. Many women believe that it is more efficient to give birth at home alone or with help of someone who lives nearby.

Though these traditional methods of delivery have been going on for years, they are risky. Although some say no children in the area have died after a home birth, 2009 data from the Central Bureau of Statistics in Jayawijaya regency reveals that, since 2004, 167 babies have died after their mothers delivered them without medical assistance.

Numerous factors lead women to deliver their children at home. In Gita’s case, her husband is jobless. The family relies solely on what she earns working at a farm every day. (In Papuan culture, the responsibility of earning money often falls on the women.)

Since enrolling in the Child Survival Program (CSP), Gita now knows that giving birth at home without any medical assistance could put her and her baby’s lives at risk. This woman, who only reached the first year of senior high school, has now learned how to safely deliver her baby. She’s learned that she has to check her pregnancy regularly, to recognize contractions, and the importance of using clean instruments during delivery.

“We taught them to understand the danger of delivering at home and the benefit of giving birth with medical assistance.

“Registered mothers at first didn’t have a good understanding about pregnancy and how they can give birth safely. It was very hard to change their paradigm about how to deliver in an appropriate way.

“They still believe that delivering the baby in the honai will not put their self in risk. They also thought it is more efficient than if they have to see the doctor to help them deliver their baby.

“Pregnant mothers now know that they have to protect their pregnancy in a good way. They learn to show their love by taking care of their pregnancy,” explains Antonetta, the CSP coordinator.

Gita, who is now pregnant with her second child, passes on the blessing of Compassion to other women. She loves to share her pregnancy experience with other mothers who haven’t had the opportunity to join the program. She wants to make a positive impact on mothers so they can they safely deliver their babies.

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Not too long ago, Kelina wasn’t your ideal mother. She would spill her anger over onto her three children, hitting them every day. She never used an empty hand to hit them, but would use rattan to hurt them. Her children were scared of her.

“I started to hit them when my husband wasn’t at home.

“I don’t know why it was so easy to get angry with my children. All I know is that when they wouldn’t do something that I had asked, I became angry and started to smite them. My anger was known as a common and frightening morning greeting for them.”

Kelina lives in Wamena, West Papua, a small city on the western side of the remote island of New Guinea. Wamena women are known as caring people and responsible mothers. Even though they have two major responsibilities, to go to the farmland and take care of their children every day, they still have love to share with their family.

That responsibility encourages Wamena women to be strong against all challenges. Even when they receive challenges from the unpredictable weather, they always try to give their best. In the middle of the difficult conditions, they still are able to give their love and time for their family.

Wamena women think creatively with the resources they have to survive. Even though they do not own farmland themselves, they rent farmland from others. To pay the cost of the rental of the land, they will share half of the crops with the owner of the land.

Although Kelina owned her own land, she didn’t want to take care of it. She had a bad attitude toward it. As a wife of Yosep, Kelina never showed her thankfulness, preferring to blame her husband, who didn’t work and couldn’t support their needs.

“I liked to get angry with him. I even have hit him because he couldn’t support our family financially.”

Kelina didn’t know how to give her love to her family in appropriate ways. Since she was young, Kelina’s parents never taught her.

Kelina also did not have a good relationship with God, even though she was born in a Christian home. She didn’t go to Sunday school very often. She preferred to stay at home and sleep rather than to go to church or have a daily prayer life in the morning.

“I never knew that building a relationship with God would help me to deal with anything. I just know when I feel angry, I can hurt anyone I like to hurt.”

Kelina’s bad attitude didn’t stop at the front door of her house. Kelina liked to gossip about the things going on in her neighborhood.

Kelina once had a fight with one of her relatives who asked for food. She gave her answer with one slap to her relative.

Her bad attitude became a trigger for her to fight with everyone. But then everything changed.

As a mother of a baby, she was registered with 34 other mothers in a Child Survival Program in Wamena. It was through being a part of the program that she realized her habits were bad.

“I realized I had done a lot of things that hurt everyone. I knew about that from the information that our implementer shared in our meetings.

“Our implementer tells lots of things that remind us to change our bad habits. She taught us not to hit our children. She said that I could teach my children through my attitude as a living model every day. I really thank God because I could join in the program and have a better way of life.”

Realizing that her habit all this time was wrong, one day Kelina started to find God. She confessed her sins.

“I now ask God to lead my path. I ask for wisdom and have started to have a daily prayer life. I try to start to read the Bible to understand what is called love.”

Together with the growth of her spiritual life, Kelina never misses a chance to share the love that she got. She’s become eager to share God’s love to her children every day.

Kelina has become calmer. No one hears the angry voice of a rough mother in the morning anymore. Kelina does not hit her children anymore. She likes to make requests of her children more politely.

The woman who didn’t want to share anything has also become a generous person. She likes to share anything she has.

But the transformation was not just accepted automatically by her children. They were not really sure about the love that she wanted to share. Her children thought that it suddenly could disappear one day.

“They thought I showed my kindness just for a glance. At first, they still didn’t want to stay near me.”

But after a long struggle to convince her children, Kelina won their hearts. Kelina also has been able to teach her children how to behave.

The woman who never taught her children to take a bath now never misses a day to ask them to do it. Kelina draws the water from the well each day to keep her children clean and healthy.

Even though she still lives in a honai, a Papuan traditional home, Kelina knows how to have a healthy lifestyle with her children.

A honai does not have any windows in order to keep the room warm. Most honai have only one room. It is a round building made from wood and straw for the roof and the floor. The diameter of the smallest honai is about three meters.

Papuans usually use the center of the honai to cook. The family members will use the other side for their needs such as sleeping and other activities. The other parts of the honai are usually used for their pets.

Pigs are a common pet for Papua people. Since they are expensive, Papuans like to keep their pigs inside their honai to keep them safe from thieves.

In these conditions, Kelina has learned how to keep her children healthy. Whenever she cooks meals, she always asks her children to play outside the house because the smoke of the fireplace could make it difficult to breath. Kelina knows that her children’s health is one of the most valuable things now.

Kelina now knows her responsibility as a mother. She likes to wake her children, ask them to take a bath, and prepare their needs to go to the school.

After finishing the morning tasks, Kelina goes to her family’s farmland right in front and beside her house. She starts to clean up the weeds and always brings the youngest child, Christian, almost 2 year old, with her.

Kelina’s children have also become obedient children and have a positive lifestyle.

Everyone could feel the impact of the changes in Kelina’s life.

“I know sometimes my neighbors don’t have a good crop to sell. If they don’t have something to eat, I gave them papaya, some ginger, chili or other crops from my farmland for them to sell. It really could help them to survive.”

Kelina knows that these changes are because of Jesus. The character of Jesus helps her change her old habits.

Now God blesses what flows from Kelina’s hand and heart.

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