CleanBirth - Saving Mothers and Babies in Laos

CleanBirth.org - Donate $5 Saves 2 Lives

Reduced Food Rations on Thai-Burma Border, Moms/Kids at Risk

Ugh…this makes me sad and makes me wonder what I can do to help.  The Mae Tao Clinic where I volunteered from Oct ’09-Feb ’10 is cutting food rations, in line with spending cuts by NGOs along the Thai-Burma border.  This article   finds that NGO money is leaving Thailand for inside Burma, resulting in smaller food rations and increased cases of malnutrition.

…The Thai Burma Border Consortium (TBBC), which coordinates NGO activity in the camps, has already been forced to downsize food rations for refugees to two thirds of the recommended nutritional intake, leaving children, pregnant and breast-feeding women at particular risk.

…With over 600 staff members, the Mae Tao clinic treats up to 300 patients daily and feeds more than 500 people.

…According to TBBC as many as 150,000 refugees live along the Thai border. About 30,000 of them are children.

5 Innovations to Save Moms

I am excited about this article, “Five Maternal Health Innovations That Could Save Lives on the PBS Newshour site.  Check it out for full details of each project.  I love, love, love seeing these innovative, simple solutions.

Here is the list of 5 and short descritptions:

1.  Preventing low birth weight with chewing gum

Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas

…Some chewing gums contain sugar alcohols, called polyols, that prevent gum disease2…

2.  Stopping HIV transmission with a vacuum pack 

Duke University from Durham, N.C.

…Duke University developed a foil, polyethylene pouch — much like a fast-food ketchup pouch — that can store medicine for months so that ARVs can be administered as soon as a child is born…

3.  Mobile heart monitoring and data gathering
Save the Children Federation from Westport, Conn.

—A mobile fetal heart rate monitor powered by human energy, which won a 2009 Index award, and a mobile phone based data gathering platform will be tested together to improve monitoring…

4.  An innovative alternative to forceps
The World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland

…The devices is a film-like polyethylene material that looks like an open plastic bag wrapped around the head of the baby, sealed and used to help extraction during complications…

5. Diagnosing with paper stamps
Diagnostics for All, Inc. from Cambridge, Mass.

…Diagnostics for All will create two postage stamp-sized paper tools that can detect anemia and hypoglycemia and hypertensive disorders, all indicators of high-risk pregnancy…

Clean Birth Kits Org: IMA World Health

Yeah! Another organization is providing moms with clean birth kits. Well done IMA World Health and their Safe Motherhood Kits.  The kits have more in them (see below) and cost $25.

Each Safe Motherhood Kit™ contains essential clean and sterile supplies including gloves, umbilical tie, scalpel, gauze pads, plastic sheeting, bar of soap, washcloth and baby supplies (a hat, tunic and blanket). IMA also provides education on safe birthing procedures and training on the proper use of a Safe Motherhood Kit™ to ensure the safest birth possible.

One $25 donation provides an entire Safe Motherhood Kit™ to an expectant mother, from the materials and packaging to shipping, delivery and training. Think of it—a $25 donation may be a matter of life and death for a mother and her baby.

NY Times Article on Clean Birth Kits

This New York Times article “Safe Birth Kits to Reduce Infant Mortality,” published in September 2011,  is a short read and great endorsement for clean birth kits.  I feel that the article plays down the need for medically trained attendants but the reality is that in many places, clean birth kits used by family members may be mom and baby’s best chance.

Safe Birth Kits to Reduce Infant Mortality

By SINDYA N. BHANOO Published: September 26, 2011

Babies arrive in this world on their own blissful schedules, regardless of war or natural disasters — or the availability of a doctor.

But when babies are delivered in unsanitary conditions without proper care, terrible things can happen to an otherwise healthy child. Each year, close to one million newborns die from infections, according to the World Health Organization.

For this reason, the United Nations Population Fund and numerous aid organizations are distributing so-called safe birth kits in the developing world. The kits usually contain soap, a plastic sheet, a razor blade to cut the umbilical cord, tape, gloves, a towel to wrap the baby in and a pictorial instruction sheet. With these tools, almost anyone can deliver a baby safely.

“The idea is that most of the time, women will deliver without complication,” said Dr. Henia Dakkak, a technical adviser on reproductive health issues at the United Nations Population Fund. “A child, or elderly woman, or any family member can help her — it isn’t rocket science.”

When no help is available, a pregnant woman can use the kit to deliver her own baby, Dr. Dakkak said. Still, in emergencies a trained expert is needed, she added.

Since 2006, the Population Fund has distributed more than 800,000 birth kits in countries like Mozambique, India, Yemen, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The kits are distributed free, so financing is the major obstacle in increasing the kit’s use, Dr. Dakkak said.

How Mobile Technology Can Improve Health Outcomes

Recently I listened to an NPR show about how technology is being junked at an increasingly rapid pace.  Everyone wants the newest phone, pad, etc…  The recomendation was to reuse as much as possible and callers gave info about women’s shelters, etc… that reuse phones.

This made me think about equipping community health workers in rural Laos with phones.  A link to the capital, where there are hospitals.  But I wasn’t sure if this would actually help.  This article from Forbes shed a little light on the potential efficacy of such a solution:

It exists in the form of Medic Mobile, a new initiative that aims to transform healthcare in the developing world through simple SMS. The reality for many people in remote regions of developing nations is a 100-mile trek by foot or oxcart to see the nearest doctor. So Medic Mobile has equipped over 100 community health workers with mobile devices to enable them to treat patients more effectively and keep up health and safety advice between appointments. The outcome is that through simple mobile technology, Medic Mobile in six months has doubled the number of patients treated with Tuberculosis in rural Malawi. It has achieved this by increasing the flow of data through mobile networks. Medical professionals are able to supply patients with information on medical supplies and improved safety advice that they, in turn, are able to access through mobile technology and external information sources.

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