Kangaroo Mother Care

There is nothing like the warmth of the mother's lap for a baby. We all know about mother's love and affection for her child but this warmth and cuddle are not only an expression of the inseparable bond between the mother and her child, but it could also be life-saving for a baby with significant medical benefits.

A UNICEF-Bangladesh and Save the Children joint survey shows that complications of pre-term birth are common in 45 per cent of all newborn deaths in Bangladesh and also 14 out of 100 babies are born premature. This burden of death is difficult to tackle as providing proper medical support and care for premature babies is very hard. However, a low-cost, and actually no-cost and hassle-free support is still available for us to raise the survival rate of the premature newborns.

Kangaroo Mother Care or KMC is an effective and a no-cost method. KMC is the practice of holding the baby on bare chest with a blanket draped over the baby's back. Kangaroo care came in spotlight in the 1970s, when Colombian doctors observed that pre-term babies held close to their mothers were more likely to thrive than those not held close.  This skin-to-skin contact benefits both the mother and the baby. Kangaroo Mother Care is beneficial for the baby as it helps retain the baby's body temperature, normalise heart and breathing rates. It also helps in gaining weight and the mother gets a better chance of successful breastfeeding as kangaroo care can improve a mother's breast milk production.  In Bangladesh, where incubators are not readily available everywhere and a large number of the deliveries are done at home, KMC could be an effective and easy method for the premature tiny tots. Gently pressed against their mommies like kangaroos in pouches, the newborns get their first cuddles, all the while reaping the benefits of skin-to-skin contact. Recent evidence shows, not only the premature, newborns without any complications also get benefits of the warm cuddles.

There may be differing views that KMC is not suitable in our socio- cultural perspective. Mothers themselves might not consider this method suitable for them, especially in rural settings where women are responsible for all household chores and also perform a good deal of agricultural activities alongside the males. These women will require extensive support and care from the family and community to provide support and opportunity to take proper care of the newborn. Also behavioural change would be required to make them understand the immense benefit that both mother and child can draw from the practice. There is also a perspective that not only the mother's support is needed, a father or even a grandmother could provide kangaroo care while the mother can get some rest or do her chores.

Given the benefits of this no-cost method, it is important that extensive advocacy is undertaken in the country so that mothers can rely on it as a suitable method to take care of their children at critical times immediately after birth. For this to happen, KMC need to be promoted in rural areas by the health workers through raising awareness among pregnant women as well as families and communities.

The writer is involved with maternal and child health sector. yesmin@eminence-bd.org