Number of clean delivery kits distributed

Number of clean delivery kits distributed

Number of clean delivery kits distributed

The number of clean delivery kits provided to visibly pregnant women, birth attendants, and/or midwives to promote clean home deliveries when access to a health facility is not possible.

This indicator is calculated as:

(# of clean delivery kits distributed/Estimated # of pregnant women in the refugee camp) x100

Data Requirement(s):

Information on the total number of clean delivery kits distributed within the refugee camp and information on the estimated number of pregnant women within the camp (estimated to be 75-125 in a three-month period in a population of 10,000)

Distribution or inventory lists of delivery kits and health facility data on the number of pregnant women within the camp

A refugee population will include women and girls in the later stages of pregnancy who will deliver during the emergency.  Camp personnel should provide simple, clean delivery kits for home use to women in the late stages of pregnancy. Women themselves can use these very simple kits. In communities where traditional birth attendants (TBAs) are assisting home deliveries, they can be given clean delivery packages and additional basic supplies. The TBAs should be linked to a health clinic with skilled birth attendants where they can register and replenish their supplies. This is a first step to integrating them in the comprehensive RH programme where they may be able to play arole as a link between families, communities and local authorities, and the reproductive health services in the camp (IAWG on Reproductive Health in Crisis Situation, 2010).

Staff can assemble kits on site, which should include:

  1. one sheet of plastic (for the woman to deliver on)
  2. three pieces of string (to tie the umbilical cord)
  3. one clean razor blade (new and wrapped in its original paper) (to cut the umbilical cord)
  4. one bar of soap
  5. one pair of gloves
  6. two pieces of cotton cloth (one to dry and the other to warm the baby)
  7. explanatory leaflets with pictures

Evaluators can use a formula based upon the crude birth rate (CBR) to calculate the supplies and services required.  With a crude birth rate CBR of 3 to 5 percent per year, some 75-125 births will likely occur in a 3­month period in a population of 10,000. Using this estimate, staff can calculate the number of kits they should order.

In the early phases of an emergency, births will often take place outside the health facility without the assistance of trained health personnel. Approximately 15 percent of births will involve some complications. Those assisting in the birth should refer complicated births to the health center. The supplementary unit of the New Emergency Health Kit (NEHK-98) has all the materials needed to ensure safe and clean normal deliveries. The health center can manage many obstetric emergencies with the equipment, supplies, and drugs contained in the NEHK-98.  When the centers cannot manage obstetric complications, they should stabilize the patients before transferring them to the referral hospital.

It is important to emphasize that where health centres with skilled birth attendants and sufficient equipment and supplies are available, all women should be told where these clinics are and should be encouraged to deliver there. This information can be provided when the clean delivery packages are distributed, as well as through communication with the community.

access, newborn (NB), emergency, safe motherhood (SM)

Inter-agency Field Manual on Reproductive Health in Humanitarian Settings.  Inter-agency Working Group (IAWG) on Reproductive Health in Crisis Situation, 2010.

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