PATH Safe Delivery Kit

Target Regions

Africa

Target SDGs

Market Suggested Retail Price

$3.00

Target Users (Target Impact Group)

Community, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises

Distributors / Implementing Organizations

PATH

Competitive Landscape

Direct competitors include Janma Clean Birth Kit.

Manufacturing/Building Method

Manually produced in accordance with PATH’s Basic Delivery Kit Guide, a step-by-step manual for developing kits.

Intellectural Property Type

Open Source

User Provision Model

Users can acquire Kits via maternal and child health programs within target regions. Community health workers and traditional birth attendants are oriented to the kits so they can either provide it as part of their birth delivery services or encourage families to purchase the kit for home deliveries. The kits are also designed to be sold through retail distribution outlets. PATH invests in building the capacity of local organizations and small businesses, such as woman-owned business, community health promoters, to produce and distribute or sell kits. Programs such as provide the kits based on the region.

Distributions to Date Status

More than half a million delivery kits have been sold in Nepal and in Tanzania.

Design Specifications

The Path Kit contents are clean, new, and packaged in a clearly labeled plastic bag or cardboard box that is adapted for local settings. A basic clean-delivery kit includes the following five essential elements: • A piece of soap for cleaning the birth attendant’s hands and the mother’s perineum. • A plastic sheet about one square meter for use as a clean delivery surface. • Clean string for tying the umbilical cord (usually two pieces). • A clean razor blade for cutting the cord. • Pictorial instructions that explain how to use each item in the kit.

Product Schematics

Technical Support

Pictorial instructions that explain how to use each item in the kit are included.

Replacement Components

Sold as a kit only, not by individual components.

Lifecycle

90% biodegradable, can be disposed of safely in a sealable bag provided with the kit.

Manufacturer Specified Performance Parameters

Ensuring that the WHO’s Six Principles of Cleanliness at Birth are achieved. Specifically, that the hands of the birth attendant are washed with water and soap, as well as the perineum of the woman. The surface on which the infant is delivered is clean. Instruments for cutting the cord and cord care (razor blade, cutting surface, cord ties) are clean.

Vetted Performance Status

PATH conducted a study in partnership with the Tanzania Ministry of Health to evaluate the impact of delivery kits. The results suggested that newborns of mothers who used a kit were 13 times less likely to develop cord infection than were newborns whose mothers did not use a kit. The mothers themselves were three times less likely to develop puerperal sepsis, or genital tract infection, after childbirth.

Safety

No known safety hazards are related to this product.

Complementary Technical Systems

Care must be taken when using the blade and provided instructions shall be followed for the desired results.

Academic Research and References

Compliance with regulations

The product follows the 'six cleans' (clean hands, clean perineum, clean delivery surface, clean cord cutting and tying instruments, and clean cutting surface), as specified by WHO's sanitation and sterility at the time of childbirth.

Evaluation methods

A study involving researchers enrolled 3,262 pregnant women during prenatal visits at local health centers in Tanzania’s Mwanza Region. Trained health workers visited mothers and their newborns on the fifth day after birth conducted structured interviews with mothers and examined the infants for infection.