There’s no greater gift for a mother than a healthy newborn baby. But not every mother is fortunate enough to give birth in a hospital delivery room. In impoverished countries like Afghanistan, 85 percent of women give birth with no access to professional medical assistance—often with dangerous results: One in six Afghan women dies in childbirth, and infant mortality rates are the third highest in the world. 

We’re working to change these alarming statistics by partnering with American Medical Overseas Relief to donate clean birth kits to Afshar Hospital in Kabul. The kits provide a safer birth environment and better health outcomes for new mothers and babies.

“Improving maternal and child health is our primary focus in Afghanistan,” explained AmeriCares Director of Asia and Eurasia Programs, Tammy Allen. “The clean birth kits will help us meet our goal to reduce neonatal mortality by 15 percent and maternal mortality by 5 percent.”

Each birth kit includes items recommended by the World Health Organization for safe home births: hand sanitizer, bulb syringe for mucus extraction, two sets of medical gloves, an under pad, a cord clamp and a scalpel. Enclosed in a biodegradable jute pouch, these simple items can save lives by providing a sanitary birthing environment that reduces the risk of infection.

The clean birth kits will help us meet our goal to reduce neonatal mortality by 15 percent and maternal mortality by 5 percent. Tammy Allen, AmeriCares Director of Asia and Eurasia Programs

The kits are distributed through Afshar Hospital’s Community Outreach and Patient Education (COPE) program, directly to the hospital’s COPE clinics in impoverished and isolated communities around Kabul. COPE home health workers reach out to expectant moms to raise awareness about the importance of a clean birthing environment and encourage them to come to the clinic for prenatal check-ups and, if possible, to the hospital for delivery. At the first visit, the expectant mom and health worker exchange contact information. During labor, if the woman, due to cultural reasons, is not able or willing to deliver in a medical setting—the home health worker travels to the woman’s home with a clean birth kit to assist with delivery. Within a week of birth, mother and baby visit the clinic for a postnatal check-up.

The program has already made a difference for mothers like Milad, who walked for 40 minutes to the COPE clinic four times during her pregnancy for care and free prenatal vitamins donated by AmeriCares. When she was in labor, she called the home health worker who arrived with a birth kit and assisted in delivering a healthy baby boy. The following week, Milad and her newborn son returned to the clinic, where Milad received her postnatal checkup, and her son received his first round of vaccines and a brand-new baby outfit.

For the pilot phase of this program, AmeriCares has donated 200 birth kits, with plans to provide an additional 1,000. The program was launched in January 2013 in partnership with American Medical Overseas Relief—a California based organization that established Afshar Hospital outside of Kabul, Afghanistan.