Opening with a confronting image of a woman giving birth on a Port Moresby hospital floor, Jason South’s photographic essay paints a dramatic portrait of the dangers of childbirth in Papua New Guinea. With a health system straining under the weight of population growth and the breakdown of basic services, the number of Papuan women dying during or after labour has doubled in 10 years. The maternal death rate has risen to 733 in every 100,000 births; the equivalent figure in Australia is eight deaths in every 100,000 births. Of the country’s 200,000 births each year, an estimated 120,000 are unsupervised.

South’s photographs achieve a remarkable intimacy and are observed with the utmost respect. Women sit on the hospital floor with their newborn babies swaddled in colourful blankets – there aren’t enough beds. One baby cries during an immunisation, while another baby curls up next to its mother. A quietly distraught father carries the wrapped body of his dead baby.

Jason South has been a staff photographer on The Age in Melbourne since 1996. In this time he has won Press Photographer of the Year twice and several other Walkley Awards for his images from places including Iraq, East Timor and Melbourne.

Click here to view some of the images from the "Papua Birth" series.