PSI Clean Delivery Kit

In developing countries, many women have no access to maternity services due to distance to health facilities, cost for medical services and products and local customs, often resulting in unhygienic delivery conditions that increase rates of infant and maternal tetanus and other life-threatening infections.
To make delivery safer by preventing infection, PSI offers clean delivery kits in multiple countries and regions.
A clean delivery kit provides the necessary tools and instructions to achieve the World Health Organization’s “Five Cleans” throughout the birthing process:

• Clean hands. Wash hands with clean water and soap, once before delivery and once before cord cutting.
• Clean delivery surface. A plastic sheet for mothers to lie upon during delivery maintains a clean birth canal and perineum, and protects the newborn from potential sources of infection.
• Clean cord cut. A new razor blade in its original packing is sterile and can prevent the transmission of tetanus-causing spores and other pathogenic organisms via the umbilicus to the infant.
• Clean cord ties. Additionally, the use of clean thread or narrow tape to tightly tie the umbilicus helps keep the stump healthy.
• Clean cord stump care. Applying antiseptic such as chlorhexidine to the cord stump to prevent infection is the best care.

Where permitted by local regulations, PSI clean delivery kits may also include:

• The antiseptic chlorhexidine for newborn skin washing and umbilical cord cleaning. Chlorhexidine has been shown to reduce newborn deaths by as much as 23 percent when applied within the first 24 hours of birth.
• Misoprostol pills. A uterotonic drug which contracts the uterus, these pills can help to prevent excessive bleeding. Excessive bleeding after delivery, called postpartum hemorrhage, is the single biggest direct cause of maternal death more than 220 women die of it every day.
• Misoprostol taken immediately after delivery significantly decreases a woman’s risk of postpartum hemorrhage and does not require refrigeration or injection, making it possible for a woman to take it after a home delivery without a trained attendant.