Kangaroo mother care (KMC) has been proven to be effective in reducing preterm neonatal mortality and morbidity rates, increasing duration of exclusive breastfeeding duration, and prompting early discharge from hospital.
KMC has only recently become widespread practice; therefore it is vital that a strong evidence base be created to justify its implementation and further randomised controlled trials are performed on its impact on infant survival and other outcome variables.
What is KMC?
KMC (or Kangaroo Mother Care, also referred to as Kangaroo Care) is an effective, nurturing practice in which mothers ensure LBW infants remain skin to skin with them for as much time as possible. KMC is often employed around the world in support of preterm newborns.
This practice has been adopted to enhance the early life experiences of LBW babies and reduce their risks of death or complications. Studies have demonstrated it reduces neonatal mortality rates, decrease hospital-acquired infections rates, increase weight gain of newborns and breastfeeding rates rates as well as improving neuromotor development as well as mother-infant bonding.
An effective KMC program requires several components from mothers, such as willingness, general health and nutrition status, hygiene practices and assistance from family members. After learning from health-care providers how to administer KMC to her LBW baby at home, mothers are empowered with the knowledge required.
Most LBW babies enjoy receiving skin to skin care from their mother and finding ways to spend quality time together, which is an integral part of their recovery process.
The World Health Organization guidelines suggest KMC as soon as possible after birth for babies less than 2000 g in weight, to improve early survival rates among LBW newborns. KMC is safe, cost-effective and evidence-based intervention that should help increase long-term survival for all newborns born too early. Scaling KMC can be challenging due to regional, country, and facility variations in health worker capacities, financial resources, leadership ability, health information systems and culture and community structures. As part of an innovative approach, Key Matrices of Care (KMC) require a standard operational definition and measurement tools that accelerate its implementation. Doing this will assist researchers and program implementers in beginning to address definitional gaps, establish global recommendations of core components, and accelerate KMC within preterm infant care settings.
How to do KMC?
KMC (Kangaroo Mother Care) is an easy and cost-effective technique that facilitates bonding between mother and infant, and reduces infection risks while improving baby’s overall wellbeing.
Procedure is straightforward enough that it can be practiced by women of any age, education level or culture – with proper guidance from health-care providers being essential in making this possible.
Ideal, KMC should be completed for at least an hour per day in private and should not interfere with daily life or work responsibilities. Although she may find this challenging initially, its value lies in saving lives!
An engaged family is vital to KMC’s success. Family members need to provide encouragement, support, and above all – time devoted solely to giving the baby skin-to-skin attention.
Baby care requires special consideration during their first few weeks. Infants often struggle to latch properly, have hungry and cranky tummies or require attention and may require special care and attention during this time period.
Implementation of KMC presents several obstacles, most notably finding time for it. This can be particularly difficult given the demands of daily domestic chores which make it hard for mothers to dedicate any quality time for their infants.
Successful KMC programs combine sensitization and training from healthcare providers, family support, and regular follow up from the community – this ensures that each case receives an individualized program that best addresses their specific needs.
What is the purpose of KMC?
Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) is an evidence-based practice intended to decrease morbidity and mortality rates among low birth weight and preterm infants. Recognized by both World Health Organization and UNICEF, its efficacy can be seen in its reduction of hospital-acquired infections, hypothermia levels, maternal-infant bonding improvement as well as reduction of hospital acquired infections.
KMC (Kind Mother Care) refers to continuous skin-to-skin contact between a mother and her newborn in the first hours after birth while they remain stable. It is a family-centric approach to neonatal care which reduces nurses’ workload while simultaneously strengthening maternal-infant bonding and increasing breastfeeding rates.
There are various definitions of KMC used in research and programmatic settings; most studies define it as skin-to-skin contact and breastfeeding as the cornerstones. Additional elements that define KMC include frequent or exclusive breast feeding, early discharge and follow-up services.
KMC implementation depends on its location, context, demographics, economy, culture and specific birth characteristics; therefore a clear operational definition for KMC must exist to make its implementation feasible and sustainable.
C-KMC (or Close Kinship Material Care) is an economical alternative to incubator care for babies less than 2000 g at birth weight that has been proven to increase survival and prevent hypothermia.
This study’s aim is to develop, implement and evaluate a C-KMC program at one tertiary hospital in North West Iran using participatory action research as the approach. A participatory action research protocol will be employed in order to explore barriers and facilitators related to C-KMC implementation in this setting, identify possible strategies to overcome them and increase C-KMC within this institution, while measuring effectiveness using before and after quantitative measurements.
What is the difference between KMC and SSC?
Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) is a hospital care intervention for preterm and low-weight babies that involves keeping them skin-to-skin as much as possible with their mother, ideally during birth and until she’s ready to breast feed again. KMC helps improve survival and quality of life in infants by decreasing mortality, increasing weight gain, encouraging breastfeeding, protecting neuromotor development and strengthening bonds between mother and infant.
The intervention is designed around WHO’s minimum package of care for small babies and is implemented across all sites. Staff in delivery rooms, neonatal units and KMC wards are trained on providing neonatal care using this minimal package whenever possible. In addition, identical weighing scales, mobile monitoring equipment and CPAP equipment are given out to participating hospitals as well as being trained on how to use it effectively.
At each site, trial coordinators oversee recruitment of infants and mothers and ensure compliance with study protocol and good clinical practice. Recruitment is monitored through biweekly teleconferences with WHO coordination team as well as quarterly visits by this team.
Randomization procedures are used to assign infants and their mothers to either intervention or control groups at the time of delivery. A research assistant opens an envelope bearing their study ID number and records how often mother and infant pairs end up in intervention or control groups.
What is the benefit of KMC?
KMC provides several benefits for mothers, including reduced stress levels and enhanced confidence and bonding with their infants. Furthermore, this practice empowers mothers to play an active role in caring for their babies as well as improving breastfeeding rates and duration.
Rearing can be an effective solution to mild respiratory distress and digestive issues in newborns, with prolonged skin-to-skin contact helping maintain a normal temperature range, protect from infections and increase weight gain.
KMC helps babies be discharged from hospital sooner, improve neurodevelopment and sleep patterns more rapidly, and are less likely to contract infections or illnesses during infancy.
KMC is an effective intervention designed to expand in resource-limited settings. It offers cost-effective and sustainable care of low birthweight (LBW) infants.
KMC implementation remains challenging, due to differences in health worker capacity, financial resources, leadership style and health information systems between countries and facilities as well as mothers and communities often being underestimated in its implementation.
To overcome these hurdles, it is crucial that KMC be defined with clear operational definition and indicators and measurement tools used for coverage evaluation. This can provide the basis for increasing KMC in preterm baby care practices routinely.
KMC can be defined as early, continuous and prolonged skin-to-skin contact between an LBW mother and infant both during hospital stay and following early discharge with exclusive breastfeeding and follow up 4; it’s vital for improving outcomes and optimizing costs; increasing research indicates its benefits for LBW infants, their families and caregivers – including increased breastfeeding, decreased need for nasogastric feeding needs, reduced hospitalizations/mortalities as well as improvement of overall quality of life for them as well as parents/caregiators’s/caregiver’s 5