PATH Clean Delivery Kit
PATH
Solution Overview & Benefits
The PATH Clean Delivery Kit is a simple, disposable kit designed to provide the essential tools for a clean and hygienic childbirth. It contains items such as a clean plastic sheet, soap, sterile gloves, a razor blade, cord ties, and gauze, all aimed at reducing the risk of infections for both the mother and the newborn during delivery. The kit is particularly useful in low-resource settings where access to healthcare facilities may be limited and deliveries are often conducted at home or in non-clinical environments.
Benefits:
- Reduced Risk of Infections: By providing sterile tools and a clean environment, the kit significantly lowers the chances of infections like sepsis for both mothers and newborns.
- Accessibility: Compact and easy to transport, the kit can be distributed to expectant mothers, birth attendants, and community health workers, making it available in remote or underserved areas.
- Cost-Effective: The kit is affordable and provides an effective solution for promoting safer childbirth in low-resource settings, helping to improve maternal and neonatal health outcomes.
- Ease of Use: The items in the kit are easy to use, even for non-medical personnel, empowering birth attendants and family members to conduct a safer delivery.
- Promotes Hygiene: The inclusion of items like soap and sterile gloves encourages hygienic practices during childbirth, reducing preventable complications.
- Supporting Home Deliveries: For births that take place outside of healthcare facilities, the kit provides critical support to ensure a safer delivery, bridging the gap where medical assistance is unavailable.
Overall, the PATH Clean Delivery Kit is an essential tool for promoting safe deliveries, improving maternal and newborn health, and reducing preventable complications in areas with limited access to formal healthcare.
History & Development
In 1994, PATH assisted a women’s health small business in Nepal to design, develop, and market a locally appropriate kit. With the approval of the Ministry of Health (MOH) in Nepal, that kit is now being sold and used throughout the country. More than one million kits have been sold since 1994. Qualitative and quantitative evaluations have demonstrated its acceptability and the effectiveness.
To further demonstrate the health the effects of kit use, PATH conducted the first cross-sectional study of single-use delivery kits in Africa. This major quantitative evaluation of the kit’s impact on preventing cord infection and puerperal sepsis in Tanzania was carried out in collaboration with the National Institute for Medical Research and the MOH. A total of 3,262 women were enrolled in the study, which was completed in late 2004. Results show that the kit has significant impact in reducing rates of infection. Newborns of mothers who used the clean delivery kit were about 13 times less likely to develop cord infection than infants whose mothers did not use the kit. Women who used the kit were about 3 times less likely to develop puerperal sepsis than women who did not use the kit.
The study results suggest that making clean delivery kits available through government health clinics, markets, private pharmacies, or other commercial channels could likely help reduce rates of infection. PATH continues to seek opportunities to promote the use of clean delivery kits and integrate their use into larger maternal and child health programming around the world. A manual describing how to set up a local production project is available from PATH.
Availability
- Publicly available: yes
- Countries where available: Nepal, Tanzania
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