‘Thoroughly modern mothers’: maternal aspirations and declining mortality on the Lihir islands, Papua

Abstract

Attempts to improve overall rates of maternal and child survival and health in Pacific societies have often sought explanation in the traditional ideas and cultural practices that were assumed to discourage women from embracing introduced, modern medical services. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and data collected in the context of social monitoring of the impacts of a mining project on the Lihir islands, this paper describes a case in which women have rapidly adopted Western medical treatments and hospital birth, and experienced dramatic health benefits as a consequence. Ease of access, quality and reliability of service provision were considered most important influences affecting women’s decisions, with cultural beliefs rarely invoked as reasons for giving birth in a village. It argues that, in spite of sharing many of the ideas and practices that have elsewhere been considered impediments to acceptance of hospital care, Lihirian women have embraced the new system as epitomising their progression to modernity.

Key Words:

• Tradition
• modernity
• childbirth
• Papua New Guinea