Kangaroo mother care to reduce morbidity and mortality and improve growth in low-birth-weight infants

Every year, more than 20 million infants are born weighing less than 2500 g – over 96% of them in developing countries. These low-birth-weight infants are at increased risk of neonatal morbidity and mortality.

Conventional neonatal care of low-birth-weight infants is expensive and needs both highly skilled personnel and permanent logistic support. Evidence suggests that kangaroo mother care is a safe and effective alternative to conventional neonatal care, especially in under-resourced settings and can reduce morbidity and mortality in low-birth-weight infants as well as improve growth and breastfeeding. Kangaroo mother care involves:

• early, continuous and prolonged skin-to-skin contact between a mother and her newborn
• frequent and exclusive breastfeeding
• early discharge from hospital.