Registration of births at the Vila Central Hospital Maternity Ward for the last three years has been connected live into the Civil Status Department database.
The system is also set up at three other major health facilities of the country – Northern District Hospital in Santo, Norsup Hospital in Malekula and Lenakel Hospital in Tanna.
CSD Acting Director, Ettienne Ravo, explains that the system allows for a baby born at the hospital to be registered into the system with all the information on the father and mother also entered into the system.
Then a birth certificate for the child is printed out before the mother and baby are discharged from the Maternity Ward of the hospital.
On the birth certificate is clearly identified as Hospital Registration.
The number on the birth certificate is the number that will be used across the board at all other departments, Civil Status Acting Director Ravo adds.
The system was installed in 2013 capturing new born babies with a photo of the babies being carried by the mothers as it was difficult to identify a baby and when he or she grew up a new photograph would then be placed onto the birth certificate to identify the grown up person.
Pila Titek who looks after the system at Vila Central Hospital explains that babies are born at the hospital every day and every day she registers between 10 to 15 babies before they are discharged with their mothers the following day.
“In one week the number of babies born and registered can go up to 50 and in one month it goes up to 200 to 290 children,” she says.
Titek uses a camera to capture the photos of the babies and which she inputs onto the reverse side of the A5 size papers and then printed out the birth certificates bearing the photos of the babies and their mothers.
Ms. Titek explains that prior to the installation of the system nurses at the maternity award only produced a birth certificate form containing information such as date of birth, name of mother and time of birth and advise mothers to go to the Civil Status Department and register the babies.
But she adds that it was found that many of the mothers never get their babies registered.
Since the system was installed all children born at the hospital were issued with birth certificates before they left the hospital.
John Love of the Civil Status Department explains that before they installed the system about 4% of the children under one were being registered. And since introducing the system in Port Vila, Luganville, Norsup and Lenakel now they are running about 70% of babies under the age of one being registered, which is a big improvement and a “very big success story”, he adds.









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