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 enviroment:
- Clean birth site - preventing delivery onto the floor
- Clean hands - to prevent the birth attendant transmitting germs to mother and baby
- Clean ties - to prevent bleeding from the umbilical cord for mother and baby.
- Clean razor - to reduce infection caused by other implements
- Clean gauze - to wipe away birth canal secretions from the eyes, which decreases future eye infections
- Clean umbilical cord - washing and drying the stumps prevents infection
- Clean perineum
- 1m x 1m plastic sheet for the mother to lie on
- a piece of soap
- 2 gloves
- 3 gauze squares
- 3 cord ties / 2 umbilical clamps
- sterile scalpel blade
PRIVACY STATEMENT
The Birthing Kit Foundation (Australia) respects and honours our supporters and partners and the mothers and children we provide aid to, and your right to be treated courteously, fairly and have your privacy protected. Accordingly, the Foundation has opted to comply with the Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act 2000 and the National Privacy Principles which form part of that Act, in its management of personal information and sensitive information related to race, religion, political affiliation or to any health information it may collect. The Foundation follows these national principles in its collection, use, maintenance, disclosure and storage of such information.
The Foundation collects and uses personal information such as name, address, email address, telephone number and donation activity from membership applications, donations, and enquiries. We use your information to inform you about our activities in helping to ensure a clean birth for underprivileged women and children in developing countries, and to fundraise for those activities. We also collect information about our partners and aid recipients including photographs. We do not disclose your information to any third party except when you have given your consent or when required by law, and we keep your information in secure databases.
Foundation collectors wear authorised identification indicating whether they are staff or volunteers, and all solicitation materials will contain the Foundation’s logo and contact details.
If you would like to access the information we hold about you, correct it or have your name removed from our database, please write to the Privacy Officer, Birthing Kit Foundation (Australia) PO Box 330, Belair, S.A. 5052.
