The Ethiopian Birth Kit Project

Millennium Development Goal number 5, focuses on improving maternal health, most particularly on lowering maternal mortality rates in developing countries. The reproductive ages of 15-45 years are perilous times for African women. Worldwide, more than 50% of the women who die from pregnancy-related causes lived in the African region. The norm for childbirth in rural Africa is a home delivery in an unhygienic environment. These conditions put women at risk for puerperal infection and newborns at risk of cord infection. An intervention that has proved effective in preventing infection of the mother and child during home births is the “Clean Delivery Kit” or “Birth Kit”. The kit consists of a plastic mat, razor blade, tie cord and soap. However birth kits can prove too expensive for poor rural women if purchased commercially. Therefore, there is the need to develop a low cost birth kit made from locally-produced items. Ethiopia has one of the highest maternal mortality rates and infant mortality rates in Africa. The study tests the efficacy of a birth kit made from items purchased in the Awassa, Ethiopia marketplace. A case control study of 301 pregnant Ethiopian women was conducted. One hundred and eighty-three rural Ethiopian women were given birth kits and a control group of 118 women delivered without a birth kit. Comparisons between the groups found that Birth kit users experienced fewer symptoms of puerperal sepsis (X˛ =21.645 df = 1, p = 0.00). Likewise, there were fewer symptoms of tie cord infection among their newborns (X˛ =15.499 df = 2, p = 000)). Children of nonbirth kits users died more often than those of birth kit users (X˛ =7.737 df =2, p = 0.21). The data suggests that locally-made birth kits may be an effective means of improving maternal health in Africa.