Campaign

This year, the campaign concentrates on Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC), a neonatal care practice freshly addressed and highly recommended by the WHO for the care of all preterm (<37 week’s gestation) or low-birth-weight (LBW, <2,5 kg) infants. Kangaroo Mother Care is the care of preterm or LBW infants in continuous and prolonged (8–24 hours per day, for as many hours as possible) skin-to-skin contact recommended to be initiated immediately after birth, with support for exclusive breastfeeding or breast milk feeding.¹

Benefits for hospitalised newborns:

• decreased mortality rates

• lower rates of sepsis & infections

• improved temperature management capabilities, fewer cases of hypothermia

• improved growth

• more stable breathing

• improved sleep

• more stable heart rates

• lower pain levels in infants, thus protecting brain development

• improved motor development

• improved sensory development

• enhanced longer-term behavioural & social outcomes such as improved academic performance

Benefits for families:

• increase of breastfeeding rates

• reduced duration of third stage of labour and postpartum haemorrhage

• reduction of time spent in the NICU

• shorter overall hospital stays

• strengthened family bonding and deepened attachment between infant and parents

• lower stress levels for parents and infant

• parents become less likely to develop mental health issues like depression

• parents are empowered as primary caregivers of their child

• higher confidence and competence in their role as a parent

• greater involvement in all aspects of care for their baby

• reduced relationships problems between the parents themselves; positive impacts on the home environment in which the child is raised

Kangaroo Mother Care – a personal story of a mother

“Precious moments like the one I got to experience should be available to all multiple birth families!”
says Stephanie Ernst, sharing her personal experience with Kangaroo Mother Care.
”My name is Stephanie, and I’m the mother of identical twins born at 31 weeks with Twin Anemia Polycythemia Sequence. At the time, we had been through a stressful pregnancy already, and with the additional stresses of NICU and prematurity thrown at us, it was hard to know how to feel, or even how to connect with my girls.
Kangaroo care was offered to us from the start, and through these precious moments, I could bond with my girls and feel comforted by the fact that this was also benefiting my babies. This photo was taken just hours after they were born, and finally, after months of uncertainty, I could feel calm, knowing that they were ok. We were so incredibly fortunate that both hospitals we were in promoted kangaroo care for our babies, and were experienced in also doing it with multiple births.
It’s essential that healthcare professionals promote and inform parents about KMC with twins. As many parents who have a multiple pregnancy have complications and experience pre-term birth, it’s vital that they also know that it can be done.”

Kangaroo Mother Care – experience of a NICU nurse

“We realized we need to educate and support our staff in why we do kangaroo care and how to do it safely. Now all levels of care in our units get educated on the benefits and on the transfer techniques. Also, we make sure we educate our parents on Kangaroo Care”

Diane K.E. Schultz, NICU nurse in Canada, talks about her experience with Kangaroo Care at St. Boniface Hospital, Winnipeg.

Launch of WHO documents on Kangaroo Mother Care

In 2023 the World Health Organization (WHO) launched two new resources: a global position paper ‘Kangaroo mother care – A transformative innovation in health care’ and an implementation strategy ‘Kangaroo mother care – Implementation strategy for scale-up adaptable to different country contexts’. These resources were developed in collaboration with a multi-country, multi-stakeholder working group, including EFCNI. The documents outline key actions with the aim to enable the wider adoption and implementation of Kangaroo Mother Care to support preterm and low birthweight babies benefitting from this lifesaving care practice.

The resources are directed to policy makers, governments, programme partners and the broader public health community to support KMC and can be downloaded here: