CONNECTIONS were formed when members of the Hawks Nest Bridge Club (HNBC) joined forces with those of Zonta Hunter Newcastle to build birthing kits to send to women in need.
The annual Zonta Club event on 4 May gathered locals and visitors to fold to assemble the components of the birthing kits, which cost $5 each and are donated by Zonta.
They will ultimately be sent overseas to developing countries where women are still having babies in unclean conditions and tetanus is still a major factor.
An estimated 385,000 women die annually in childbirth, many from preventable infections, and every hour 33 women die of complications related to pregnancy and childbirth, according to Zonta information.
“The birthing kit components are supplied by Birthing Kit Foundation Australia, including gauze to clean the mother and baby, the plastic sheet to give them a clean place to do it, soap and gloves to aid cleanliness, three pieces of string to tie off the umbilical cord (one extra, just in case), and a scalpel to cut the cord,” Zonta Club of Newcastle President Lee Romstein told News Of The Area.
The plastic bag and the plastic sheet are treated with an organic compound that helps the plastic breakdown.
“We once had a midwifery student from Papua New Guinea come along to a meeting who told us she had actually used the birthing kit.”
“Hawks Nest Bridge Club has been supporting Zonta for many years, and we are glad we can help by giving them somewhere to [prepare the kits],” HNBC President Peter Baily said.
Zontians and Bridge Clubbers took to the task with gusto, their reward being a beautiful, home-made morning tea provided by various club members.
The folding tables, otherwise the sites of intensely contemplative and challenging bridge card games, were slippery with elbow grease before long, as close to 1000 birthing kits were started during the morning.
The morning’s kits were then loaded into crates and whisked off, bound first for an upcoming Zonta Hunter Newcastle gathering in New Lambton next week to add the rest of the components, then to Birthing Kits Australia in Adelaide.
The project began as an extension of one Zonta member’s medical expertise back in 2003, and since then over one million birthing kits have been sent overseas and 2.4 million women have experienced a safer birth.
By Thomas O’KEEFE
