Mum's Birthing Kits

The issue high maternal and infant mortality rate in rural areas in Cameroon caused by the lack of access to affordable and clean birthing kits and health centers for safe deliveries.

Our solution is to connect the women in need across Cameroon to the ultra affordable sterilized supplies they require at childbirth.

Our solution will curb Maternal and infant mortality rate in rural areas by 70% by 2024

Everyday in Cameroon,hundreds of mothers and babies die at childbirth.A big part of the problem is the lack of access to sterile supplies in rural communities where over 54million women live and work as well as the broken healthcare chain affecting those areas.Traditional birth attendants severe umbilical cords with rusty blades reason for high prevalence of neonatal tetanus due to unhygienic management of the cord of the newborns.Midwives use their mouth to suck out mucus from the nostrils of babies. Coming from Cameroon, I knew that the Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) is unacceptably high at 505/100,000 live births; although over 90% of women attend antenatal care services (ANC) at least once, only 38 % deliver in health facilities with a skilled providers.Due to shortage of resources, women who report to health facilities for normal delivery are instructed to buy and provide basic items for delivery like gloves, plastic sheets,gauze, cord ties,blades, soap etc.before they could be managed.Considering that most of the people are very poor, and live in the rural areas where there are no drug shops or pharmacies, finding the essential items is problematic and because of failure to avail the items, many women opted to deliver at home.

My solution is to provide a sterilized ultra affordable birthing kit containing essential supplies a woman require at childbirth to ensure she has a clean, safe and hygienic delivery. We work to ensure every baby gets an opportunity to live his or her potential and every mother gets the opportunity to watch her baby grow. With Mum’s Birthing kit,traditional birth attendants will cease to use rusty blades and glass to severe umbilical cords,they will now have access to scalpel blades, midwives in rural communities will no longer have to use their mouth to suck out mucus to prevent birth asphyxia,they will now use a mucus extractor,a mothers will no longer lay on a bare floor or use a plastic bag sterilized with salt,she will be lying on our sterilized absorbent delivery mat and her baby received with our sterilized infant receiver.The same kit could also be used for normal delivery in health facilities when the basic items are not available.I wanted to make a contribution in the fight against sepsis for the mothers and the risk of eye infection and tetanus infection of newborns by ensuring the use of clean surface and tools for cutting and tying the cord.

Our target population is poor rural women living below the poverty line of $1.25 per day,classified as-ethnic minority because they live in the two English speaking regions of Cameroon which is facing an ongoing humanitarian crisis.They are internally displaced persons and live in poor urban slums and  hard to reach remote areas where clinics and hospitals have been burnt.They lack access to affordable maternal healthcare services.

Through my foundation I train women and traditional birth attendants on how to use the kits and also improves access to more formal health care by encouraging health workers to refer cases beyond their capacity to better-qualified facilities when the option exists.
With Mum’s Birthing kit, traditional birth attendants will cease to use rusty blades and glass to severe umbilical cords,but will now have access to scalpel blades,midwives will no longer have to use their mouth to suck out mucus to prevent birth asphyxia,but will now use a mucus extractor,a woman giving birth will no longer lay on the bare floor or use a plastic bag sterilized with salt, she will lay on our sterilized absorbent delivery mat and her baby received with our sterilized infant receiver.This initiative also create jobs for women.         

Our solution is to provide a sterilized ultra affordable delivery kit containing essential supplies a woman requires at childbirth to ensure she has a clean,safe and hygienic delivery.Due to poverty and lack of access to health centers and clean/affordable birthing kits,women turn to traditional birth attendance who use rusty knives to severe the cords of babies causing neonatal tetanus.We aim to prevent diseases by providing traditional birth attendants and healthcare providers in rural health facilities with access to sterile razor blades and cord ties,mucus extractors to prevent asphyxia and sterilized absorbent delivery mats for women to lay on during childbirth.

Before the kit, birth attendants in rural communities would attend to women on reused plastic sheets, for example, and then attempt to disinfect them with warm water and salt. Unknowingly, the practice put their next clients at risk of infection. The kit has provided an alternative in the form of a stark white, absorbent delivery mat, which stains immediately after use so attendants aren’t tempted to recycle it.

Midwives also use their mouths to suck out mucus to prevent birth asphyxia but now we provide them with mucus extractors and training.

We are working on an app which can be used to collect data, report stock outs or security threats, and even support a referral for a complicated delivery. Right now we use mobile tablets to collect data in rural facilities. If the tablet can connect to a mobile network, the data is automatically transmitted to the national health information management system, saving time and avoiding duplicate information. If there is no mobile connection, the data can be stored on the tablets and submitted later. Conflict can affect the ICT infrastructure and disrupt access to a network but there are now many devices suitable for low resources settings (phones with longer battery life, solar chargers etc), and even in the poorest setting, connectivity is on the increase

We are currently trying and its working because even without internet service women can still reach out to our team

We are currently testing in 20 local communities and two health centers with 500 rural women.