FOR many Australian women, giving birth in a hospital is a given.

But for many women around the world, delivering a baby is far less glamorous.

The Zonta Club of Warwick is aiming to help increase the health of women and infants in disadvantaged communities worldwide by supplying birthing kits.

Simplistic in their contents - a square metre of plastic sheeting, scalpel blade, soap, latex gloves, three pieces of cord and five pieces of sterile gauze - the kits help to keep the birth environment clean and lower the risk of infection.

Birthing kit coordinator Sally Carr said club members, with the help of students from Warwick State High School, Scots PGC College, Assumption College and SOTE, this morning packed a record number of kits for distribution.

"We managed to pack 1400 kits which is the best number we've had in the years we've assembled the kits,” Mrs Carr said.

"We had about 58 extra volunteers from all the schools, and there were boys among them which was great to see.

"The kits often are given to someone with health training or to a health centre in a village and may then be passed onto the woman who may go back into the bush to give birth.

"It costs us about $3 to put each kit together and transport it and we raised that money at an Australia Day breakfast.”

Warwick volunteers managed to pack the kits in about two hours at the PGC Dining Hall this morning.

Though the initiative was started by Zonta in South Australia 20 years ago, the Birthing Kit Foundation of Australia is now its own entity.

Each year, Zonta branches around the country help to pack the kits to send to disadvantaged communities around the world.

"We won't know exactly where they've gone until about six months down the track,” Mrs Carr said.

"Last year our kits went to the Congo so I'll let everyone know where they end up because often people do want to know where they've ended up.”

Zonta member Mary Goyne said the community effort was marvellous to see.

"Zonta is a community-based organisation working to improve the health and status of women globally,” she said.

"It's great to have women of our age working together with school-aged girls, and even boys, toward one common goal for the community.

"We're grateful for PGC letting us use their dining hall each year and for all the schools getting involved.”