2 min video
(Re-posted from NIDCAP)
In New England Journal of Medicine today, May 26, 2021 is the publication of an RCT of 3200 newborns that showed that kangaroo care starting immediately at birth can save an additional 25% of small and sick babies' lives in addition to the 40% reduction in mortality already known to occur when Kangaroo care is started at 7 days post-birth. The authors call for universal mother-newborn intensive care units because kangaroo care is lifesaving. This is the 20 million dollar Bill and Melinda Gates study results. Click on the article and click on the WHO Department News document - both are fascinating and WONDERFUL NEWS and provide a paradigm shifting goal for modern evidence-based neonatal care. The Department News also refers to kangaroo care during COVID-19 and is in complete agreement with my publication of Kangaroo Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic article that is in Neonatal Network this month (Ludington-Hoe et al. doi: 10.1891/11-T-748 in volume 40 ,issue 3, pages 161-175). ENJOY. Susie Ludington
We would like to share a paper published today in the New England Journal of Medicine which shows that starting Kangaroo Mother Care soon after birth improves survival babies with birth weight less than 1800 grams by 25%, when compared to the current recommendation of starting KMC after stabilization.
The paper is available at this link: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2026486
A WHO news story has been published: https://www.who.int/news/item/27-05-2021-kangaroo-mother-care-started-immediately-after-birth-critical-for-saving-lives-new-research-shows
This study marks a new milestone on the road towards zero separation of the mother and the newborn. Implementing immediate KMC required a paradigm shift in newborn care with the creation of mother-newborn intensive care units (M-NICU).
The study was a two-arm, randomized controlled trial set in high volume, public tertiary care units in Ghana, India, Malawi, Nigeria, and Tanzania. The babies in the immediate kangaroo mother care group started the intervention as soon as possible after birth and got an average of 17 hours per day in the Mother-Newborn ICU. In the control group, kangaroo mother care was started only after the baby was stable, with babies receiving KMC on an average of 1.5 hours per day while in the neonatal ICU. After clinically stable, babies in both the study groups received kangaroo mother care (about 19 hours/day) as recommended by WHO guidelines