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'Family members have to cut umbilical cords with rusty saws, or smash the cord against rocks with shoes - unthinkable but true.'

Andy Jackson looks at how a bar of soap, a piece of string and a razor can eliminate the unnecessary deaths of babies and mothers

In the UK we take it for granted that when a child is born, there will be professional help available at short notice to assist with the birth. When my son was born by emergency caesarean section, there were two surgeons, an anaesthetist, a paediatrician and three nurses staffing the operating theatre.

In some developing countries, professional help cannot be taken for granted. In fact, some births are like something from a horror movie.

Many children, and their mothers, die soon after birth because there are no trained volunteers to oversee births. About eight children and one mother dies every minute, according to the report 'State of the World's New-borns', published by US charity Women and Children First, with the Institute of Child Health (ICH) and Save the Children in America.

Cords

Family members have to cut umbilical cords with rusty saws, or smash the cord against rocks with shoes - unthinkable but true. The stuffing from old mattresses is used as gauze and threads, and the lack of washing and basic hygiene leads to serious infection and death.

More than eight million babies across the world die before they're one month old - 98 per cent of these deaths occur in the developing world. According to the report, mothers in west Africa are 30 times more likely to lose a baby than their counterparts in western Europe.

Professor Anthony Costello, director of the International Perinatal Care unit at the ICH, says simple practices such as keeping babies warm immediately after birth, encouraging basic hygiene during delivery and having a skilled healthcare worker present during the birth, could reduce new-born death rates by more than half.

Professor Costello said: 'This is a huge and neglected problem. In most developing countries, healthcare for pregnant women during the critical perinatal period is virtually non-existent. Most mothers give birth without ever coming into contact with a skilled health worker.'

In a study that Professor Costello conducted, the infant mortality rate in one of the most deprived areas of Maharashtra in India rate fell by 60 per cent over a three-year period after mothers were trained as baby monitors. The mothers were taught to help at births and look out for signs of infection and problems following delivery.

Shirin's story

In Afghanistan, a local villager called Shirin had seen too many mothers and their babies die to stand by and do nothing.

So she got together with other women in her community, went to the Rural Rehabilitation Association of Afghanistan (RRAA), a Christian Aid partner, and asked to be trained as a traditional birth attendant.

Now she does her rounds in her village of 300 people, armed with a simple birthing kit containing items such as a bar of soap, a razor blade and an ordinary piece of string.

Since February 2003, not a single baby has died in Shirin's village. And soon she will be able to make sure that her daughter's child - her grandchild - will have a much better chance of survival.

Christian Aid helps partners such as the RRAA train people to be birth attendants and health workers. The birthing kits supplied in Afghanistan contain string, a bar of soap, a razor blade, gauze, a plastic apron and sheet, a water jug, bandages and a nailbrush.

If you would like to help support this life-saving training and the supply of kits, and Christian Aid's work worldwide please click here.