Cambodia has one of the highest neonatal tetanus mortality rates in the Asia Region. Seventy percent of women deliver at home using a traditional birth attendant. Most rural women do not understand the risks of infection during home delivery. Consequently, the majority of home deliveries occur under unhygienic conditions using non-sterile instruments to cut the umbilical cord. Provision of a simple home birth kit (HBK) is contributing significantly to reducing the risk of infection. The Reproductive and Child Health Alliance, with the MoH and UNICEF, market tested a HBK consisting of: plastic sheet, soap powder, scrub brush, rubber gloves, strings, sterile blade, gauze, gentian violet, and instruction sheet. The HBK is a one-use-only kit designed for untrained, illiterate rural women. To make the HBK a sustainable intervention, the kit was sold for US$0.75 employing a cost recovery mechanism designed to finance future kit production. As production numbers increase, the program is approaching financial sustainability. The market test in five catchment areas demonstrated overwhelmingly that: rural women will purchase such a kit because it is affordable, both mothers and their attendants can understand how use the items in the kit, they considered the kit extremely useful and plan to use it again, demand for the HBK is substantial even without marketing efforts - 300 kits were sold in 3½ months using only local promoters/sellers. The HBK is quickly becoming an affordable, sustainable safe motherhood intervention for rural women.
Learning Objectives: At the end of this session, the participant will be able to: 1. understand that the chances of infection during home delivery can be greatly reduced with a basic home birth kit using locally available materials at low cost; 2. have case evidence that even in low-income countries like Cambodia, rural women can understand the benefits of and will pay for a basic, low cost home birth kit that helps to protect her and her baby.
Keywords: Safe Mother Program,
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.