SENATOR NATASHA STOTT DESPOJA SPEECH NOTES
ZONTA BIRTHING KITS
I rise today to speak about a basic right of women, that is that every woman has the right to a clean and safe childbirth. In connection with this, I draw the attention of the Senate to a project in my home State of South Australia which is having significant impact on women in developing countries; that is the Birthing Kit Project conducted by Zonta Adelaide Hills Club.
Zonta International is a worldwide service organisation of women executives in business and the professions working together to advance the status of women.
The United Nations World Health Organisation estimated in 1996 that 585,000 women died annually in childbirth. One woman dies every minute. Developing countries accounted for 99% of these deaths.
For every woman who dies in childbirth, a further 30 women incur injuries and infections - many of which are often painful, disabling, embarrassing and lifelong.
Ways recommended to help reduce these statistics are:
1. preventing unwanted pregnancies
2. improving antenatal care
3. improving capacity for dealing with obstetric complications
4. providing clean birthing conditions
This is where the Zonta Adelaide Hills club comes in.
In 1995 Dr Joy O'Hazy, a member of the Zonta club of the Adelaide Hills Area, attended the 4th World Conference for Women in Beijing in 1995. There she heard Sally Field, the actor, talk about the success of simple birthing kits used in Nepal.
This led to Joy researching the basic resource requirements for a birthing kit, in consultation with Professor Anthony Radford, an international health consultant.
In 1999 under the supervision of an experienced Community Development worker, the first 100 birthing kits were sent to Fergusson Island, Papua New Guinea to be trialled by the Village Birth Attendants in rural villages.
In rural PNG, according to the PNG Health Department, there was a 1 in 7 mortality rate in childbirth. Hence a clean birth has the potential to make an enormous difference to the health of both the mother and child.
After receiving positive feedback from the Community worker, the birthing kits became an integral part of the training of Village Birth Attendants under the AusAid sponsored Women's and Children's Health Program.
In 2000 the project became nationally accepted and supported 12 provinces within PNG, and to date over 16,000 kits have been provided to PNG.
As someone who was fortunate to have access to modern, progressive medical and hospital services for the birth of my own child, it is disturbing to consider the experience of women who do not have access to even the most fundamental requirement of a clean birth.
Put simply, birthing kits provide for a clean birth that may decrease the risk of death from infection and bleeding.
A Birthing Kit works by providing the 7 'cleans' for a clean birth:
* 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 cut * by using a sterile razor to reduce infection
* Clean eyes * 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
The kits consist of:
* A metre square plastic sheet for the mother to lie on
* A piece of soap
* 2 gloves
* 5 gauze squares
* 3 cord ties
* Sterile scalpel blade.
All contained in a small press seal plastic bag
Each kit costs only 70 cents to produce
60 million women give birth each year with the assistance of a Traditional Birth Attendant or no assistance at all. These women need a birthing kit.
The Zonta Adelaide Hills club Birthing Kit project did not stop at PNG.
This amazing group of women in Zonta Adelaide Hills have established the program with 20 other NGOs and organizations in 24 countries, including East Timor, Vietnam, Fiji, Ethiopia, Burma and Afghanistan. They have never lost a consignment in 5 years.
They research all aspects of transport for the most reliable and cheapest way to move the kits around the world.
Nor is there any compromise on quality and accountability.
The birthing kits are only sent to places where they have been requested; they are always distributed through Health Professionals in Hospitals or Health Clinics, frequently where there are Training Programs for Birth Attendants. The Health Professional undertakes responsibility for training people how to use the kits and how to dispose of waste.
So successful and worthy was the Adelaide Hills club Birthing Kit project that it has now become a Zonta National project. Over 70 Zonta clubs across Australia contribute funds towards the project, and hold Assembly Days where the kits are made.
By the end of 2006, more than 320,000 Zonta birthing kits will have been requested and distributed to 24 developing countries.
Through a partnership with the National Foundation for Australian Women, they have achieved tax deductibility status for donations to the project.
I acknowledge the support of Minister for Foreign Affairs in approving an AusAid grant to the project last year of $113,000, with a further grant in July 2005 of $200,000, on a dollar for dollar basis.
The Zonta club have some impressive plans for the future.
They would like to:
* Encourage the local women to assemble their own birthing kits, as has occurred in Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea.
* Expand this project, using the successful model in Australia, to other Zonta countries worldwide.
* Make this a worldwide Zonta International Service Project.
* Form a Birthing Kit Foundation.
* Seek to conduct an Epidemiological study of the impact of their Birthing Kits.
I was recently asked by Zonta Adelaide Hills to participate in their assembling of kits, on 7th May. Regrettably, other commitments prevented my attending.
Assembly days are real community affairs * with participation from Zonta members, students of local schools, family members, friends and volunteers. At a 2004 assembly day, 60 volunteers assembled 2000 birthing kits in 3 hours and I am informed that last Saturday 7th May they broke that record and assembled 2400 kits.
I commend the work of the project managers Dr Julie Monis-Ivett and Dr Joy O'Hazy, Assembly day and Transport Coordinators Margaret Parsons and Di Bartel-Gardiner, and the women of Zonta Adelaide Hills, and indeed the wider Zonta organisation for their dedication to this project.
Women and families in developing countries are certainly better off for it.