Immediate skin-to-skin contact after birth improves survival of pre-term babies
Continuous skin-to-skin contact starting immediately after delivery even before the baby has been stabilised can reduce mortality by 25 per cent in infants with a very low birth weight. This according to a study in low- and middle-income countries coordinated by the WHO on the initiative of researchers at Karolinska Institutet published in The New England Journal of Medicine.Continuous skin-to-skin contact between infant and mother, or “Kangaroo Mother Care” (KMC), is one of the most effective ways to prevent infant mortality globally. The current recommendation from the World Health