Every preterm or low birth weight (LBW) infant, whether in low-, middle- or high-income settings, should receive continuous and prolonged kangaroo mother care (KMC) initiated as soon as possible after birth and carried out for at least 8 hours per day.
Achieving this will require changes to the physical layout of maternal and neonatal units to enable mothers to be together with their sick preterm or LBW infants who need to be cared for inside special/intensive care units. It will also require a change in the culture of health care provision with
obstetricians, midwives, pediatricians, and neonatal nurses working together in harmony caring for mothers and newborns together in one place with families as key partners in the care of their newborns.
The World Health Organization released the new Global Position Paper and Implementation Strategy to support the scale-up of Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC). This webinar included questions to Ministries of Health about their experiences scaling-up KMC and to global stakeholders about their plans to support the scale-up of KMC as the foundation for small and/or sick newborn care in order to achieve universal coverage.
