Each year, 57million women worldwide give birth without the help of a healthworker, usually at home where the risk of infection is high. 1600 women die per day of pregnancy/childbirth. 2600 new-borns die from infection each day. The clean-delivery kit is a simple approach to reducing these deaths as it helps women and new-borns avoid life threatening infections.
Over the years, the NGO PATH has developed kits in Bangladesh, Eygpt and Nepal. Most kits contain a bar of soap for hand washing, a plastic sheet (delivery service), string for tying the umbilical cord and pictoral instructions on sequence of delivery events and hand-washing. Research and field-testing during development ensured the cultural acceptability of kits. In Nepal, for example, it is tradition to cut the cord on a coin so kits contain a plastic rupee as a clean cord-cutting surface.
Once in place, PATH conducted interviews and role-plays to gauge the resopnses of women who had used them. Mothers and birth attendants generally appreciated the kits and found them affordable. PATH quantified the positive impacct on women and children in Tanzania. Results suggested that women who used the kits were substantially less likely to develop infections. Infants were also much less likely to develop cord infections.
PATH's goal is to make sure the kits are avalible to the women who need them. It does this by building the capacity of local organisations and small businesses to produce or sell kits. In Egypt, PATH helped community health promoters develop a plan to use kits as an income - generating activity that would contribute to their health programmes. In Nepal, it gave local woman-owed business a head start - within a years sales increased form 28,000 - 46,800 kits per year, contributing to the long-term stability of the company.
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