Afroja Yesmin :
There is nothing like the warmth of mothers lap for a baby, the hugs and cuddles that a baby gets from a mother is worth a million. We all know about mothers love and affection for a child but this warmth and cuddle is not only a way of showing how much one love their child, also could be life saving for a baby with a significant medical benefit.
A UNICEF Bangladesh and Save the Children joint survey shows complications of pre-term birth are causal factors in 45 per cent of all newborn deaths in Bangladesh and also 14 out of 100 babies are born premature. These burdens of death is still on rise as in a low resource setting like Bangladesh, providing proper medical support and care for premature babies is hard to make. However, a low cost actually a no cost and hassle free support is still available for us to increase survival rate of the premature newborns.
Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) is an effective and no cost way where no incubators are available to sustain the moderate and late pre-term premature babies in a home based management. KMC is the practice of holding baby on bare chest with a blanket draped over your baby’s back. Kangaroo care came in spot light 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, according to the Cleveland Clinic. This skin-to-skin contact benefits both the mother and the baby. Kangaroo Mother Care is beneficiary for the baby as it help retain babies body temperature, normalize heart and breathing rates, 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. As in Bangladesh, incubators are not readily available and also as most of the deliveries are done at home level KMC could be an effective and easy method for the premature tiny tots who could become a flourished one from that little extra embrace and holds of mothers warm body. Gently pressed against their mommies like kangaroos in pouches, newborns get their first cuddles all while reaping the benefits of skin-to-skin contact. Recent evidence shows, not the preemies only, newborn without any complication also get benefits of that warm cuddles.
There would be opinions differing that KMC is not suitable in our socio cultural perspective and the mothers would not prefer these method suitable for them, especially in rural settings where women are only responsible for doing household chores and also some burden of agricultural labour. 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 behaviour change communication would be required to make them understand that traditional and cultural attires are suitable enough to support KMC. There is also a perspective that not only the mothers support is needed, a father or even a grandmother could provide kangaroo care while mother can get some rest or do her chores.
Bangladesh, despite having remarkable success in MNH, for having gap in addressing some major elements is failing to achieve the projected score in Millennium Development Goals (MDG).
If Kangaroo mother care could be promoted through established facilities at rural level and also by the health workers (FWV, CSBAs) at field level, raising awareness among pregnant women about KMC and also including families and communities to work on KMC model could become a success story of preventing those unwanted deaths of premature newborns. n
There is nothing like the warmth of mothers lap for a baby, the hugs and cuddles that a baby gets from a mother is worth a million. We all know about mothers love and affection for a child but this warmth and cuddle is not only a way of showing how much one love their child, also could be life saving for a baby with a significant medical benefit.
A UNICEF Bangladesh and Save the Children joint survey shows complications of pre-term birth are causal factors in 45 per cent of all newborn deaths in Bangladesh and also 14 out of 100 babies are born premature. These burdens of death is still on rise as in a low resource setting like Bangladesh, providing proper medical support and care for premature babies is hard to make. However, a low cost actually a no cost and hassle free support is still available for us to increase survival rate of the premature newborns.
Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) is an effective and no cost way where no incubators are available to sustain the moderate and late pre-term premature babies in a home based management. KMC is the practice of holding baby on bare chest with a blanket draped over your baby’s back. Kangaroo care came in spot light 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, according to the Cleveland Clinic. This skin-to-skin contact benefits both the mother and the baby. Kangaroo Mother Care is beneficiary for the baby as it help retain babies body temperature, normalize heart and breathing rates, 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. As in Bangladesh, incubators are not readily available and also as most of the deliveries are done at home level KMC could be an effective and easy method for the premature tiny tots who could become a flourished one from that little extra embrace and holds of mothers warm body. Gently pressed against their mommies like kangaroos in pouches, newborns get their first cuddles all while reaping the benefits of skin-to-skin contact. Recent evidence shows, not the preemies only, newborn without any complication also get benefits of that warm cuddles.
There would be opinions differing that KMC is not suitable in our socio cultural perspective and the mothers would not prefer these method suitable for them, especially in rural settings where women are only responsible for doing household chores and also some burden of agricultural labour. 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 behaviour change communication would be required to make them understand that traditional and cultural attires are suitable enough to support KMC. There is also a perspective that not only the mothers support is needed, a father or even a grandmother could provide kangaroo care while mother can get some rest or do her chores.
Bangladesh, despite having remarkable success in MNH, for having gap in addressing some major elements is failing to achieve the projected score in Millennium Development Goals (MDG).
If Kangaroo mother care could be promoted through established facilities at rural level and also by the health workers (FWV, CSBAs) at field level, raising awareness among pregnant women about KMC and also including families and communities to work on KMC model could become a success story of preventing those unwanted deaths of premature newborns. n
(Afroja Yesmin is Sr Assistant Coordinator, Eminence)
