| Title: |
Enabling and impeding factors for implementing kangaroo mother care for low birthweight infants in low and middle income countries the user side. A realist review. |
Description:
Kangaroo mother care was initiated in 1978 in Bogotà, Colombia in as an alternative care method for low birthweight or preterm neonates, where the baby is held skin-to-skin against the mother's chest for thermal regulation. It was a response to high mortality rates among preterm neonates the context of insufficient conventional technology, such as incubators, and overcrowding of neonatal wards. While it was developed in and for resource-limited settings, its benefits are now widely acknowledged and kangaroo mother care is recommended for low birthweight or preterm infants in all settings. Despite the availability of a low-cost method with proven effectiveness to lower mortality among those neonates, mortality rates remain high in resource-poor settings. In the course of progress monitoring towards Millennium Development Goal 4 on reducing under-five mortality (MDG 4), the focus turned to neonatal mortality, low birthweight and preterm birth.
An estimated 15 million babies are born preterm every year; over 60% of these births take place in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The highest burden of preterm birth is in South-Eastern Asia, Southern Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Further, 16% of babies born globally are low birthweight. However, over 80% of preterm births have very good chances of survival not requiring neonatal intensive care, and among all preterm births, 75% of deaths could be prevented without intensive care.
This calls for urgent implementation of low cost, cost-effective and evidence-based interventions, such as kangaroo mother care (KMC). Despite the widely agreed benefits among experts and many practitioners on facility-based KMC, there is low coverage in most low- and middle-income countries, and progress levels vary in countries that do implement KMC. Challenges and facilitators have been identified at all levels, on the provider side as well as the user side. |
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| Date Of Record Creation: |
2016-05-11 15:41:29 (W3C-DTF) |
| Date Of Record Release: |
2016-05-11 19:48:10 (W3C-DTF) |
| Date Last Modified: |
2016-05-11 19:48:49 (W3C-DTF) |