They are basic and small, but some 3000 little bundles carefully wrapped up by Canberrans on Saturday are going to help babies in developing nations.
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The Zonta Club held a Birthing Kit assembling day in Lyneham, calling in about 200 volunteers to pack essential equipment to be used by mothers experiencing home birth in remote areas.
The Zonta Club's Grace Slater said $9000 had been raised to pay for the contents of the kits, which contain a black plastic sheet to lay on the ground, rubber gloves, gauze, soap, a scalpel to cut the umbilical cord and string.
"The birthing kits were started by the Zonta Club in South Australia years ago and it has now grown so big it has become an organisation in its own right,'' she said.
The kits are aimed at giving babies a hygienic start in life which can prevent infections and contribute to lowering the infant mortality rate.
In the past, kits have been sent to Ethiopia, East Timor, Uganda, Afghanistan and Ethiopia.
The Birthing Kit Foundation Australia, started by Zonta, has said the basic contents of the kits meant they were not a target for thieves and they were easily understood by women without encountering language or literacy barriers. The kits have been distributed by non-government agencies.
Ms Slater said the kits cost $3 each to produce and Canberra's Rotary movement often helped with financial donations to make them.
A report from Afghanistan stated that 2350 kits has been used and only one woman had died and no babies had died. Statistically it was expected that between 44 and 118 women would die and over 100 babies would die in normal circumstances.
