One Million Birthing Kits

How you feel about giving birth in a hut, on the dirt, miles from a hospital and perhaps with a half trained midwife?

Many women and babies suffer from neo-natal tetanus, and through no fault of their own. Naturally occurring soil bacteria can affect the mother and baby during the birthing process and be potentially fatal for both.

I've told you on numerous occasions about Birthing Kits, and these cheap and simple collection of just a few items can make an enormous difference to the cleanliness of a birthing site.

Last Saturday, both Zonta clubs in Canberra hosted our 8th annual public birthing kit packing day.  Once again, over 200 women donated their time; friends of the club, including Rotary, donated cash; the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints donated their hall, chux cloths, cake and hands to help successfully pack 3000 kits for the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Go and check out the photos on flickr.

What I really wanted to tell you is that in August, a Zonta club in Brisbane will pack the 1 millionth Birthing Kit!

Over the past 12 years,  all over Australia, small and large groups of Zonta clubs; nurses and midwives; uni and high school students have come together to hand pack these birthing kits and send them around the world.

In September, the Birthing Kit Foundation (Australia) will celebrate with events across the country.

Here in Canberra, there will be a breakfast on 11 September.

In Canberra we will be breakfasting with Dr Luc Mulimbalimba Masururu from the Democratic Republic of Congo and hear first hand about conditions for reproductive health in that country.

There are also celebration events in other States. Check your diary and see if you can make yourself available to celebrate this unique service project.

Zonta Birthing Kits - Canberra midwives helping babies around the world

Zonta wise I am kept fairly busy. However, most of my Zonta work is boring admin stuff. I am about to start as District Secretary for this upcoming biennium. I could post photos of me taking minutes. I suspect there are already enough blogs about that sort of thing.

Yesterday, I got out from behind the computer and went out to a Birthing Kit packing session. I had the magical opportunity for a bit of 'drive-thru' service. I pulled up in my car, ran in, did some work, ran out, drive off. Such a luxury! 

This was a small packing session - 600 kits. Small compared to our massive 4000 kits day. The Canberra branch of the Australian College of Midwives organised a packing session held at the University of Canberra - in the midwifery practice room of course.

A couple of us from the Zonta Club of Canberra Breakfast went along to do a bit of training and help out. Kerri did a spot on job at teaching. I worked on post-packing quality control. These ladies were great! Organised, friendly, all got stuck in and completed the session in under 2 hours! They were proud to be part of a bigger, greater outcome.

Primary target for birthing kits is mothers in developing countries who are giving birth on the ground. By providing a few simple items, such soap and a scalpel, that increase the cleanliness of the surrounds, the risk of potentially fatal neonatal tetnus is reduced.

Similar to this Canberra group, the University of Sydney Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery put together a short video of their birthing kit experience, which is up on the homepage for the Birthing Kit Foundation. It is very short and shows the lovely young women with a passion for their profession - go now and watch!

If you are interested in supporting Birthing Kits, the Foundation also maintains this Facebook page, and this list of upcoming packing days being run all over Australia. Here in Canberra, we are packing 3000 kits on 31 July. Come and join us! See the details on my Event Gadget - up there - on the right of this page. There'll be cake.

A Very Zonta Christmas - 2011 Footprint of Service

As is the custom for this time of year, we look back and celebrate the successes of the year, and at the Canberra Breakfast Club we had plenty to work on.

In 2011, we:

made over 250 breast cancer care cushions

Raised about $11,000 at our Pre-Loved Fashion Sale in March

Racks and racks of wonderful donated clothes

And another $800 buying Blue Illusion fashion

Still wearing that club shirt and name badge!

 Supported a female PhD astrology student at Mt Stromlo with a $5,000 top up to her scholarship

Would you be able to complete your PhD on just $20,000p.a.?

Donated kitchen starter packs for 5 women leaving refuges to start a new life in a place of their own

What if you had no possessions? How would you cook a meal for the kids?

Packed and donated 333 emergency toiletry packs for women's refuges

Held a community day and packed 4000 birthing kits that went to Ethiopia.

Awarded $500 to our Young Women in Public Affairs award winner

See Samantha at the top? She's our Club's 2009 nomination who went on to win at Zonta International level

Hosted a Zonta Information stall at the Rotary Conference

We were the only non-Rotary stall there!

We also loaded up carloads of new and seondhand linen and towels for the refuges, enjoyed a range of guest speakers, attended Area Meeting and District Conference.

We don't do all this alone. We enjoyed working with an incredible range of people from multiple Canberra Rotary Clubs, students from Dickson College, Australian National University, Karinya House, Bega Women's Refuge, Oasis Refuge, St Vincent's, ATSI Cultural Centre, Lyneham Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and the family, friends and work colleagues of our workplaces.

Success in Zonta is a conundrum - we are deeply grateful to every person assisting us to achieve our goals - and we believe that the work on which we focus makes a difference to the status of women in the Canberra region. Hopefully - one day - some of our work won't be needed anymore.

Best wishes to all Zontians and our friends (Hon Zons) for a successful 2012.

Zonta Birthing Kits - 4000 kits on their way to Ethiopia

"60 million women give birth each year with the assistance of a traditional birth attendant or no assistance at all"

Coming from a country where we have sophisticated hospitals and "machines that go bing", it is easy to ignore how giving birth alone, in a remote location, would be in terms of pain, cleanliness, and personal assistance.

Rotary supporters having fun while packing kits

One of the biggest events for the year in my Zonta Club is our Birthing Kit Packing Day. Every year we organise a large community session, in collaboration with many supporters, and pack 4000 kits to send to a developing country. This year our kits went to the Hamblin Foundation Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa.

Let's have a look at the history and what's involved. The whole story is pretty complicated, so watch the videos to see the kits, how an assembly works and why the kits are important.

Zonta Birthing Kits are the brainchild of Dr. Joy O'Hazy, a member of the Zonta Club of Adelaide Hills. She had travelled and seen Sally Field in the US supporting birthing kits and was inspired to devise her own system. She devised a kit and began working with reproductive hospitals in Papua New Guinea to get the contents, methods and training right. Enthusiastic with their success the club supported the project and got it off the ground for Zonta Clubs across Australia

Supported with a government grant from AusAID, the club was then able to establish the Birthing Kit Foundation - a separate entity with the sole purpose of managing this project. The Channel 10 TV show: The 7pm Project recently aired a 3 min piece that introduces these ladies and the Foundation. (2012 UPDATE: This video is no longer available)

Have a look at this longer video from the Birthing Kit Foundation which highlights the need for the kits and also shows how an assembly day works.

On Saturday, 30 July my club conducted its annual birthing kit packing day. To fund the purchase of the kit materials from the Foundation we raised over $8,000 which included donations from :

• The Zonta Club of Canberra
• School students at Dickson College
• Rotary Clubs of Western Creek, Jerrabomberra and Woden Daybreak

and support from the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Lyneham for the free use of their hall, and for organising the refreshments (YAY, Cake!)

Have a look at this short video from Queensland ABC News which shows the huge day organised up in Brisbane:

The organising committee in my club spent many hours over several months getting our day together - you can see all the materials that have to be organised, a pallet load full! The co-ordination is extraordinary - tables, ice cream containers, boxes, cakes, advertising, volunteers - I can't explain the extent of the organisation. Below I have put a few photos of our 2010 and 2011 days.

If you are here in Australia and would like to attend a packing day, the Birthing Kit Foundation maintain a Facebook page and this list of upcoming packing days across the country. Contact them and go! go now! Packing days are an unique experience - no where else can you do this - and you'll be supporting women across the world to have a clean birth.