Home Delivery Kit to Save the Lives of Mothers and New-borns
This basic home delivery kit is a maternal health solution for women giving birth at home, either alone or with someone not trained to help with a birth. This is a single-use kit, meaning it can be used for the delivery of one baby. Home births without skilled care pose many risks, including an increased risk of infection, which can lead to complications for mothers and their new-born babies. The use of clean delivery kits can prevent these and other complications. For instance, this solution includes a sterile razor blade, to cut the umbilical cord safely. This solution is tailored towards mass distributions.
Basic Delivery Kit for Home Delivery, Single Use
All the items comprising the kit must be unused, clean and put in a plastic bag or cardboard box that is clearly labelled. The whole package must be culture-appropriate. Make sure that accompanying illustrations portray only the included items, nothing extra. The following five items are essential and must be in the kit:
- A bar of soap to wash the helper’s hands and the mother’s perineum.
- A clean plastic sheet, 1m x 1m square, where the mother will give birth.
- Two pieces of clean string to tie the umbilical cord.
- A sterilised razor blade to cut the cord.
- Illustrations that show how each item in the kit should be used.
Maternal Health
Basic home delivery kits address a very real and urgent problem: the preventable deaths of mothers and their new-borns. Every year, about 303,000 women die during pregnancy, childbirth or within 42 days of giving birth or the termination of their pregnancy – as found in a research article on the effectiveness of birthing kits for clean childbirth. In addition, an estimated 2.62 million infants die within 28 days of their birth. The vast majority of these, largely preventable, deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In these countries, where many women live in rural areas far from healthcare facilities, more than half of mothers give birth at home. About half of these women do not have access to an experienced birth attendant, which gives rise to the risk of infections. A birthing kit like this could be invaluable to these women. By using a Basic Delivery Kit, women giving birth in rural areas with limited medical support can reduce exposure to infection.
All solutions in the Solvoz catalogue are built and edited by experts in the industry. This solution was added by a Solvoz expert, using the guidelines and materials of PATH and UNDP. The PATH document is based on a guide by the World Health Organisation (WHO). WHO and the United Nations endorse the use of clean delivery kits (CBKs) in areas with few resources and limited access to medical facilities. They have identified the components and brought the kit to life on the platform, so that it is accessible for all.
