All about touch: Kangaroo care can save your pre-term baby’s life

A preterm baby inside an incubator at Kenyatta National Hospital's newborn unit on November 11, 2013. PHOTO | PHOEBE OKALL

What you need to know:

  • Newborns are shielded from the cold by keeping it close to its father or mother’s skin.

  • Technique offers the pre-term baby natural, incubator-like benefits.

  • Migori County is among five counties in Kenya with the highest number of pre-term births.

Joel Moseti stands out oddly as the only man in the babies’ nursing unit at Kuria West Sub-County Hospital in Kehancha, Migori County.

He is seated next to his wife with his three-week-old daughter on his chest.

When his daughter Dalvin Peninah was born on October 12, her arrival brought mixed feelings for the young couple. “She was very tiny … almost fragile and grossly underweight,” he says. He could barely look at her, let alone hold her in his arms for the first time.

At 1.4 kilos, this was the first time Mr Moseti, 20, had seen such a ‘tiny’ baby in his life. But if he expected things to get better, they only got worse.

VITAL ORGANS

“My baby’s weight dropped significantly to 600 grammes before she started gaining weight. The only consolation was that the doctors told us she would get better,” Mr Moseti says.

“But for this to happen, the mother and I had to learn the new technique that offers the baby natural, incubator-like benefits. I had to step in and help my wife through this skin-to-skin intervention,” he proudly explains.

Known as Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC), it is promoted for low birth-weight preterm babies and helps in stabilising body temperature which in turn leads to quick improvement and development of vital body organs such as the heart and lungs.

It borrows from the Australian pouched mammal, the Kangaroo, which naturally gives birth to underdeveloped babies but which are then carried in its pouch under the belly, being nourished with milk as it thrives from the mother’s warmth.

The human mother care works similarly, by ensuring the pre-term babies are shielded from the outside cold by keeping it close to its father or mother’s skin — the reason it’s called skin-to-skin protection.

EFFECTIVENESS

In the first two weeks, baby Dalvin added 400g.

Naomi Kerambo, a young mother, is also familiar with cases of pre-term birth. In 2014, her baby girl came too soon; she was only seven months pregnant.

“Back then I had to cover the baby in warm clothing most of the time. She weighed 1.6kg but she is now a bubbly four-year-old. Coincidently, this year I went through a second pre-term birth with my son. I had to deliver him at 28 weeks of pregnancy,” Ms Kerambo says.

But she can attest to the effectiveness of the kangaroo technique. “I have witnessed fast growth in my son. At birth, he weighed 1.7kg but now he weighs 2.9kg,” says the 21-year-old.

In Kenya, more than 180,000 babies are born premature every year and nearly 15,000 die.

Kenya is among the 15 countries with the highest number of preterm babies.

Globally about 15 million babies are born too early.

Preterm birth, defined by the World Health Organisation as all births before 37 weeks of pregnancy, is the leading causes of death among children under five in Kenya and the world.

Pre-term babies are vulnerable and thousands can be saved if they receive extra care. Managing severely premature babies involves intensive care, requiring specialist skills and equipment as such incubators and respirators.

The Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) is implementing a Preterm Birth Initiative (PTBi) Research in collaboration with University of California, San Francisco, and the Migori County government.

HIGH RATES

Dr Phelgona Otieno, the principal investigator in PTBi Kenya, explains: “Our main aim here and elsewhere is to decrease the burden of pre-term births, improve survival and quality of life for pre-term born babies.”

According to the 2014 Kenya Preterm Demographic and Health survey, preterm birth complications are the leading cause of deaths among children under five years of age, responsible for nearly one million deaths in 2013.

Dr Leah Kirumbi, also a researcher at Kemri, says lack of statistics on pre-term births was a major concern.

“What we had were estimates. The neonatal mortality rate was at 22 or 23 per 1,000 live births. The other issue was the management of pre-term babies. One of the key things is how to manage the environment of pre-term babies,” Dr Kirumbi says.

Migori County is among five counties in Kenya with the highest number of pre-term births.

COMPLICATION

Scientists are trying to find out why this is the case. “We are investigating the real cause of these high rates of pre-term births in Migori. We, however, know that probably high numbers of adolescent pregnancies, mothers with multiple pregnancies, lack of access to health facilities in time of labour, maternal related conditions and sickness and a myriad of lifestyle issues may be factors to consider,” Dr Otieno says.

Ms Margaret Okumu developed preclampsia (pregnancy complication characterised by high blood pressure and signs of damage to another organ system, most often the liver and kidneys) which lead to premature delivery at the Migori-based St Joseph Mission Hospital, Ombo.

“My baby had to be removed. It was a tough decision because my life was at stake,” said the 23-year-old mother.

Migori County Director of Health Dr. Elizabeth Mgumb says Migori County Referral Hospital recorded 250 (13 per cent) preterm births out of the 1,200 births between January and June 2018.

“For the preterm births, the interventions have to start during conception, pregnancy, during labour and even after delivery,” Dr Mgumb says.