ISLAMABAD: Nearly 36,000 newborns with low birth weight have been treated at Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) centers across Pakistan since 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) said this week, adding that the low-cost intervention is helping reduce illness and hospital stays for vulnerable infants.
The approach, known as KMC, promotes skin-to-skin contact between mothers and babies, exclusive breastfeeding and early discharge from hospital. WHO says it has supported 17 such centers nationwide, where infants weighing 2 kilograms or less receive care.
WHO says the initiative is particularly significant in Pakistan, which has one of the world’s highest neonatal mortality rates, with more than 40 deaths per 1,000 live births, according to the World Bank.
By teaching mothers to provide prolonged skin-to-skin contact, sometimes for up to eight hours a day, the centers are helping families keep premature and underweight babies alive even in resource-limited settings.
“We stayed at the Kangaroo Mother Care Center because Aizal had low weight, only 2 kilograms,” Faiza, a mother from Haripur in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, was quoted as saying in a WHO report. “I was so worried for her, but after being admitted to the center, she became healthy, and I was happy.”
At Haripur District Headquarters Hospital, the KMC unit was inaugurated in 2024 by provincial authorities and WHO’s Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean.
Local paediatrician Dr. Muhammad Iqbal described the facility as “transforming bookish knowledge into practical care.”
Health workers said the initiative has cut hospital stays and infection rates.
Rafia, head nurse at the unit, said KMC had “resulted in decreased hospital stays for mothers and newborns, and reduced illness rates.”
Mothers also report seeing rapid improvements in their children. Sundus Javed, whose son was admitted with low weight, said:
“I have seen him yawning, moving, and he feels better.”
