Birthing Kit making day

Zonta Club of the Riverland Inc is a proud supporter of The Birthing Kit Foundation (Australia). We arrange a number of assembly days each year and invite community members to join us in making up the kits.

The Birthing Kit Foundation (Australia)

The Birthing Kit Foundation (Australia) is a voluntary, not for profit NGO that provides birthing kits and education in clean birthing practices to women who give birth at home in remote regions of the developing world. The aim of the Foundation is to reduce the incidence of infant and maternal mortality and morbidity, and it has no religious or political affiliations.

The United Nations (W.H.O.) estimates that 585,000 women die annually in childbirth. Developing countries account for 99% of these deaths. For every woman who dies in childbirth, another 30 women incur injuries and infections – many of which are often painful, disabling, embarrassing and lifelong.

There are ways to help reduce these statistics, including:

1. Preventing unwanted pregnancies
2. Improving antenatal care
3. Improving capacity for dealing with obstetric complications
4. Providing clean birthing conditions

The Birthing Kit Foundation (Australia) has researched, developed and is now supplying BIRTHING KITS that provide for clean birthing conditions. 60 million women give birth each year with the assistance of a Traditional Birth Attendant or with no assistance at all. These women need a birthing kit.

A Birthing Kit works by providing the 7 cleans required for a clean birth environment:

Seven Cleans

1. Clean birth site – preventing delivery onto the floor
2. Clean hands – to prevent the birth attendant transmitting germs to mother and baby
3. Clean ties – to prevent bleeding from the umbilical cord for mother and baby.
4. Clean razor – to reduce infection caused by other implements
5. Clean gauze – to wipe away birth canal secretions from the eyes, which decreases future eye infections
6. Clean umbilical cord – washing and drying the stumps prevents infection
7. Clean perineum

What is a Birthing Kit?

• 1m x 1m plastic sheet for the mother to lie on
• a piece of soap
• 2 gloves
• 5 gauze squares
• 3 cord ties
• 1 sterile scalpel blade