Close contact intervention between a mother and her premature baby may reduce of mortality risk

A method of care involving skin-to-skin contact between a mother and her prematurely born or low birth weight baby appears to impact the child's chances of survival significantly, suggests a study published online in the journal BMJ Global Health. Starting the intervention within 24 hours of birth and carrying it out for at least eight hours a day both appear to make the approach even more effective in reducing mortality and infection, researchers found.

The method of care known as ‘Kangaroo mother care’ (KMC) involves an infant being carried, usually by the mother, in a sling with skin-to-skin contact and many studies already carried out have shown this is a way of reducing mortality and the risk of infection for the child. The World Health Organization recommends it as the standard of care among low birth weight infants after clinical stabilisation.

By looking at existing studies, researchers set out to compare KMC with conventional care and to compare starting the approach early (within 24 hours of the birth) with later initiation of KMC to see what effect this had on neonatal and infant mortality and severe illness among low birth weight and preterm infants. Their review looked at 31 trials that included 15,559 infants collectively and of these, 27 studies compared KMC with conventional care, while four compared early with late initiation of KMC.

Analysis of the results showed that compared with conventional care, KMC appeared to reduce the risk of mortality by 32% during birth hospitalisation or by 28 days after birth, while it seemed to reduce the risk of severe infection, such as sepsis, by 15%.

Reference:

Kangaroo mother care for preterm or low birth weight infants: a systematic review and meta-analysis,BMJ Global Health,DOI 10.1136/bmjgh-2022-010728