Sr. Ritamary Brown's dedication to caring for the sick led her to focus in retirement on mothers and newborns in poor countries, especially at the moment of birth.
Sr. Brown, a member of the Hospital Sisters of St. Francis, retired two years ago from hospital work. She immediately began volunteering with Hospital Sisters Mission Outreach, a medical surplus recovery organization based in Springfield, Illinois, and founded by her order in 2002. Last year, she took on the role of leading the nonprofit's clean birth kit initiative that was started in 2024 and made its first shipment last spring.
Through the program, Mission Outreach sends supplies to places across the globe where birthing services are unavailable or financially out of reach for many mothers.
Sr. Brown noted that health disparities in many poor nations result in infant and maternal mortality rates that are significantly higher than in the United States. "Many of these deaths are correlated with inadequate pre- and post-partum clinical care access, including medical supplies and working diagnostic medical equipment," she explained.
The clean birth kits assembled by volunteers and shipped by Mission Outreach include items necessary to safely deliver a baby, such as soap, gauze, umbilical cord clips, a scalpel, antiseptic wipes, an underpad, disposable gloves, and instructions on how to use the items. The supplies in each kit cost about $15, but access to them is limited to nonexistent in many low-resource parts of the world.
The kits are an addition to Mission Outreach's longstanding work of collecting surplus, but usable, medical supplies and equipment from U.S. hospitals and clinics, then shipping those items in 40-foot containers to medical sites in low-resource areas globally. The supplies in those shipments sometimes include equipment for obstetrical and maternal care such as fetal heart monitors and ultrasound machines.
"Supporting clinical care for labor and delivery through the donation of essential medical supplies and equipment is a focus at Mission Outreach and is meaningful to me personally and spiritually," Sr. Brown said.
Sr. Brown was a dietitian before getting her master's in hospital administration. She later led hospital departments such as facilities, supply chain, environmental services and food/nutrition.
"Her professional experience with logistics and supply chain was a natural fit for a Mission Outreach volunteer position, especially focusing on clean birth kits, in retirement," said Erica Smith, Mission Outreach's executive director.
The first shipment of 1,000 clean birth kits went to nurses at a hospital in Moshi, Tanzania, in eastern Africa. The infant mortality rate in Tanzania is estimated at about 30 per 1,000 live births; that compares to about six for the United States, according to the World Bank.
Smith and other Mission Outreach employees have made several visits to the hospital as a part of a multiyear collaboration to increase access to medical equipment and supplies overall, with an emphasis on mother and baby care.
The nurses in Kemondo use the kits and distribute them to midwives and other traditional birth attendants. "I talked to nurses who used them, to make sure what they needed and wanted was in the kits," Smith said.
This year, Mission Outreach will send the kits to more African countries and to locations in South America where there is a need. The goal of the program is to distribute 5,000 kits annually.
Sr. Brown wrote a column about her leadership in the clean birth kits initiative for the Global Sisters Report website. "Where a baby happens to be born should not determine his or her access to safe, clean conditions to come into the world," she noted in that piece. "Every birth, every baby, is a miracle from God, and we should treat it as such."