An 80-cent plastic pouch is saving mothers from dying in childbirth

An 80-cent plastic pouch is saving mothers from dying in childbirth

An 80-cent plastic pouch is saving mothers from dying in childbirth

A simple plastic pouch costing about 80 cents is saving thousands of women from dying in childbirth. The maternal drape sits under a woman during delivery and collects blood in a marked pouch, so midwives can see at once when blood loss reaches the danger level of 300 millilitres. Used together with a bundle of treatments — uterine massage, drugs to contract the uterus and stop clotting problems, and intravenous fluids — it has cut deaths from postpartum haemorrhage in hospitals by about two-thirds. Postpartum bleeding affects one in ten women who give birth and kills at least 70,000 women a year.

A simple plastic pouch costing about 80 cents is saving thousands of women from dying in childbirth. The maternal drape sits under a woman during delivery and collects blood in a marked pouch, so midwives can see at once when blood loss reaches the danger level of 300 millilitres. Used together with a bundle of treatments — uterine massage, drugs to contract the uterus and stop clotting problems, and intravenous fluids — it has cut deaths from postpartum haemorrhage in hospitals by about two-thirds. Postpartum bleeding affects one in ten women who give birth and kills at least 70,000 women a year.

A simple plastic pouch costing about 80 cents is saving thousands of women from dying in childbirth. The maternal drape sits under a woman during delivery and collects blood in a marked pouch, so midwives can see at once when blood loss reaches the danger level of 300 millilitres. Used together with a bundle of treatments — uterine massage, drugs to contract the uterus and stop clotting problems, and intravenous fluids — it has cut deaths from postpartum haemorrhage in hospitals by about two-thirds. Postpartum bleeding affects one in ten women who give birth and kills at least 70,000 women a year.