Kenya’s Nakuru County is set to launch Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) across all public health facilities, aiming to strengthen newborn care and improve survival outcomes for vulnerable infants.
Accordingly, the County Government of Nakuru launched a comprehensive training program for healthcare workers ahead of the full implementation of KMC across all public health facilities.
The training aims to equip them with the skills and knowledge necessary to adopt KMC in line with World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines.
Unlike conventional neonatal care where preterm babies are first stabilised in incubators before being placed on their mothers’ chests, kangaroo mother care promotes early, continuous and prolonged skin-to-skin contact between the infant and a caregiver, preferably the mother.
County Executive Committee Member (CECM) for Health Services Roselyne Mungai said that immediate skin-to-skin contact has been scientifically proven to reduce neonatal mortality, lower the risk of hypothermia and infections, promote exclusive breastfeeding and enhance maternal confidence in caring for fragile newborns.
“KMC significantly reduces the risk of infections and complications, supports faster weight gain and healthy development, shortens hospital stays and lowers newborn morbidity and mortality,” she said. Global research indicates KMC can reduce newborn mortality by up to 40 percent.
Recent studies conducted in countries such as Malawi, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana and India indicate that even babies weighing as little as 1,000 grams or below 800 grams benefit significantly when stabilisation occurs during continuous skin-to-skin contact.
Official statistics show that approximately 134,000 babies are born prematurely in Kenya each year. A significant number succumb to complications related to prematurity, while others face lifelong disabilities including learning challenges, visual impairment and hearing problems.
Preterm births are linked to several risk factors, including poor maternal nutrition before and during pregnancy, smoking and alcohol consumption, infections such as urinary tract and amniotic membrane infections and a history of premature birth in previous pregnancies. Other contributing factors include extremes of maternal age and uterine malformations.
The kangaroo mother care is proven to be an affordable, evidence-based intervention widely endorsed for improving survival and health outcomes among preterm and low birth weight infants, particularly in resource-constrained health systems.
MG/as/APA
