Kangaroo Care Cuts Mortality in Low Birth Weight Newborns

David Cook, December 25, 2015

The researchers have found that if premature and underweight newborns are kept with their bare chests nestled directly against their mothers’ breasts then it may improve their survival chances.

According to FOX News, researchers noted that about 4 million infants lose their lives during their first four weeks of life, and those infants who are born prematurely or have low birth weight have a higher risk for death, serious illness, developmental delays, and chronic disease.

However, leading author Dr. Grace Chan, a professor at Harvard Chan School and Boston Children’s Hospital, said that although skin-to-skin care is especially beneficial in countries where medical resources are limited, developing and developed nations are also interested in normalizing KMC for all newborns and mothers.

Indore: Concerning over alarming rise in infant mortality, the State Government has made a decision to develop maiden Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) unit in Chacha Nehru Hospital through which premature babies will get natural care.

“Hopefully our study will provide a clear picture of the evidence on kangaroo mother care to help clinicians, families and policy-makers understand the benefits implementing this practice can have on newborn health”, affirmed Boundy and Chan.

They suggest “kangaroo” care may also save a baby’s life.

The researchers found that, among newborns weighing less than 4.4 pounds given KMC, there was a 36 percent reduction in mortality and 47 percent lower risk of sepsis or major infections. Another explanation could be that because skin serves as a protective barrier against infections, having the newborn close to the mother may protect the baby from coming in contact with infectious organisms. Siobhan Dolan, MD, medical advisor, March of Dimes, commented, “Kangaroo care helps by improving preemies’ body temperature regulation, and by stabilizing their heart and breathing rates, but, we may not even know every pathway, medically, that it’s working though”.

Kangaroo mother care, or continuous skin-to-skin contact, can reduce rates of low birth weight infant death, according to a recent review of studies.

Furthermore, those newborns had higher oxygen levels and head circumference – and lower pain measures – than babies who didn’t receive kangaroo care.

Lead author Ellen Boundy, SD ’15, who worked on the study while at Harvard Chan School and is an epidemiologist at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Chan, and co-authors analyzed 124 studies published between 2000 and 2014 that looked at skin-to-skin contact as a component of KMC. Several other research materials which were reviewed also included exclusive birth feeding and follow-ups in their definition of practice, UPI reported.

"Maternal deprivation during the critical post-birth period carries detrimental long term effects for all mammalian young”.