More than 50 community volunteers turned out to help The Zonta Club of Bendigo assemble 2000 birthing kits on Saturday in what the club believes to be a world record.
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Club president Kathryn Patarica said the new kits were in addition to 2000 kits produced in May and another 2000 kits produced in September last year.
“This means that Zonta Bendigo has funded and assembled a record 6000 birthing kits in the past 12 months,” she said.
Zonta birthing kit co-ordinator Irene McKinna said the kits would help reduce the death rate from pregnancy complications for women in third world countries.
“Every two minutes a woman somewhere in the world dies of complications related to pregnancy and childbirth, and annually an estimated 385,000 women die from preventable infection,” she said.
“The 2000 kits Zonta produced in May were part of an 11,000 kit consignment sent to Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo – a country where there are over 114,000 maternal and neonatal deaths annually.”
The kits contain a plastic sheet to prevent mother and baby from coming into contact with a dirt floor, gloves for the birth attendant, soap, gauze and a sterile scalpel blade to provide a clean cut of the umbilical cord.