Project Lead(s): Zubaida Bai
Issue
Infection resulting from unclean conditions is a leading cause of maternal and newborn deaths in developing countries.
Facility-based births are recommended as an effective strategy to improve the quality of care at childbirth.
However, health facilities in resource-poor settings often lack access to adequate staff, training, sterile supplies and infrastructure required to provide clean and safe births.
Scalable and sustainable distribution of simple, proven technology solutions for resource-poor health institutions continues to be a serious development roadblock.
Solution
In India, Ayzh, a social enterprise, has developed a Clean Birth Kit to help women in low-resource settings deliver in a safe and hygienic atmosphere.
The JANMA Clean Birth Kit contains all the essential tools recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) to ensure safe and sterile conditions at the time of childbirth.
Assembled by local women in India, JANMA (which means birth in Sanskrit) is packed in a biodegradable jute bag that new mothers can reuse as a purse. Each bag contains an underpad, a surgical scalpel blade, a cord clamp, a bar of soap, a baby wiping cloth and an instruction sheet.
The project also created awareness among healthcare workers and end users about the Clean Birth Kit and the importance of the ‘Six Cleans’ (Clean hands of the attendant, Clean surface, Clean blade, Clean cord tie, Clean towels to dry and then wrap the baby, and Clean cloth to wrap the mother, as recommended by the WHO).
A mobile phone-based training support program was used to educate rural healthcare workers.
Outcome
A total of 50,000 Clean Birth Kits were sold and 1,425 births were conducted using the kits, with 340 healthcare workers trained through the mobile phone training program.
More than 80% of respondents in hospitals strongly agreed that the delivery kit made a difference in their delivery.
The project has been approved for a loan of up to $1 million in matched funds from Grand Challenges Canada, to develop a new model for product distribution across the Indian market in three states.
Ayzh aims to respond to provider demand through the establishment of an innovative expansion model to replicate success, increase reach, and improve access to their Clean Birth Kits in facilities. The team is exploring the inclusion of chlorhexidine for cord care as an additional component of their kits and 14% of funding will go to the development of the next version of the kit.