Birthing Kits Workshop

On Tuesday 22 June, as part of MEGAR (Mindfulness, Empathy, Gratitude, Acceptance and Resilience) Day, a group of Year 9 and Year 11 Frankston High School students volunteered their time to make 400 birthing kits that will be sent out to pregnant women in developing countries to help ensure that they have a safe, and sanitary birth. 

The Birthing Kit Foundation Australia is a humanitarian organisation that provides birthing kits and education in clean birthing practices to women birthing at home in remote regions of the developing world.

In these birthing kits, students packed one set of rubber gloves, three strands of string, one bar of soap, five gauze pads, one scaple and one biodegradable plastic sheet. 

Frankston High School students found that this experience was very ‘eye opening’ and felt privileged be a part of something so life changing for others.  All students learnt to understand and appreciate just how lucky we are. 

To date 2.4 million clean birthing kits have been distributed to women in need.  Kits are given to mothers through community outreach programs, supplied to health facilities for use by doctors, midwives and nurses or distributed to traditional birthing attendants.

We would like to thank the Frankston Rotary Club for their financial help in obtaining the resources to produce these kits.  We would also like to thank Ms Suzanne Caldwell, Ms Alicia Dell and Mrs Sarah Bahramis for organising this opportunity. 

For more information on the birthing kits and their impact, please go to: 

Hayley Patman and Holly O’Brien

Year 11 students