Report on an international workshop on kangaroo mother care : lessons learned and a vision for the future
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Date
Authors
Cattaneo, Adriano
Amani, Adidja
Charpak, Nathalie
De Leon-Mendoza, Socorro
Moxon, Sarah
Nimbalkar, Somashekhar
Tamburlini, Giorgio
Villegas, Julieta
Bergh, Anne-Marie
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
BioMed Central
Abstract
BACKGROUND : Globally, complications of prematurity are the leading cause of death in children under five. Preterm
infants who survive their first month of life are at greater risk for various diseases and impairments in infancy, childhood
and later life, representing a heavy social and economic burden for families, communities and health and social systems.
Kangaroo mother care (KMC) is recommended as a beneficial and effective intervention for improving short- and longterm
preterm birth outcomes in low- and high-income settings. Nevertheless, KMC is not as widely used as it should be.
The International Network on KMC runs biennial workshops and congresses to help improve the coverage and quality of
KMC worldwide. This paper reports the results of the two-day workshop held in November 2016, where 92 participants
from 33 countries shared experiences in a series of round tables, group work sessions and plenaries.
FINDINGS : Barriers to and enablers of KMC are discussed with regard to parents, health workers and the health system.
Key factors for effective implementation and uptake relate to appropriate training for health staff, adherence to
protocols and the creation of a welcoming environment for families. Recommendations for planning for national
programmes are made according to a six-stage change model. Resources and the cost of making progress are
discussed in terms of investment, maintenance, and acceleration and scaling-up costs. KMC training requirements are
presented according to three levels of care. To ensure quality KMC, key requisites are proposed for the different KMC
components and for sensitive communication with caregivers. The group attending to the monitoring and evaluation
of KMC at a national and subnational level highlight the lack of standard indicator definitions. Key priorities for
investment include health services research, harmonisation of indicators, development of a costing tool, programming
and scaling up, and the follow-up of preterm infants.
CONCLUSION : It is hoped that this report will help to further scale-up and sustain KMC through a systematic approach that
includes raising commitment, identifying key strategies to address the main barriers and using existing facilitators, ensuring
training and quality, agreeing on indicators for monitoring and evaluation, and advancing implementation research.
Description
Keywords
Prematurity, Implementation, Scale-up, Training, Quality of care, Kangaroo mother care (KMC)
Sustainable Development Goals
Citation
Cattaneo, A., Amani, A., Charpak, N. et al. 2018, 'Report on an international workshop on
kangaroo mother care: lessons learned and
a vision for the future', BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, vol. 18, art. 170, pp. 1-10.