Birthing Kits - providing a clean and safe birth

10% of the total global deaths of under 5 years old is in Nigeria. This is a country that needs your help.

Your donations are supporting our midwifery programs that give lifesaving information in a country with 1 million children dying under 5 annually. The Maternal Mortality Ratio in Nigeria is 840 : 100,000 and as mentioned previously the provision of birthing kits addresses only  one small aspect of what is killing the women and babies. To really have a sustainable solution in a community they need to be educated about all other aspects of health, hygiene, nutrition and midwifery.

Your donation has helped the Birthing Kit Foundation work with Sweet Mother International(SMI) to distribute its clean birthing kits along with local health training programs. In April this year SMI distributed 400 birthing kits at a seminar. They worked in collaboration with Lafia Hospital Apata Ibadan. Marton of Lafia Hospital is a community health worker of 23 years, who sensitised the 40 community birth attendants to the objectives and benefits of the kits. After the training each woman is given 7 kits to start with, knowing they can get top ups when needed as the supply is ongoing.

Another similar program was held at the Primary Health Care Centre Byazhin, Bwari Area council FCT Abuja in Nigeria. Here SMI worked with the Citizens Health Education and Development Initiative to hold its health training program. Many guests were at the opening of the program including the village heads of the 10 communities in Byazhin, nurses, TBA representatives and many pregnant and nursing mothers. Here the message is for the women to give birth at the hospital or clinic, however, if it is impossible to get the birthing mother to a clinic then a birthing kit supplies the basics for their clean birth. They have found that many deaths can be avoided by education and directing the pregnant mothers to the hospital or clinic with plenty of time. Much of the training is on prevention of malaria, prevention of HIV, hygiene, nutrition and responsible pregnancies and contraception.

We also partner with Rotary International, where 4,700 birthing kits were handed to the polio campaign coordinators for distribution within the northern states of Kano, Kaduna, Katsina and Borno as well as the southern state of Imo. These birthing kits were distributed in November and December 2012 to birth attendants in rural areas. 3,000 birthing kits were also distributed in April 2013 to the 20 selected hospitals participating in the Maternal and Child Health Project. These birthing kits are stored in the health facilities and will be distributed to Skilled Birth Attendants in the surrounding communities when they are trained by project midwives.

As Nigeria is such a high risk country for maternal and child health it will continue to be a priority country for the foundation.