Kangaroo technique gives life to preterm babies in Tanzania

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania

In the East African country of Tanzania, Kangaroo technique to treat preterm babies has achieved a 99.5% success rate, according to Agnes Mtawa, director of Nursing Services at the Muhimbili National Hospital.

Coinciding World Prematurity Day on Wednesday, experts say that the Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) involving skin-to-skin contact to help premature babies by wrapping them with a cloth close to their mother’s skin has raised survival rates. The technique mimics the Kangaroo, which keeps the newborn in the pouch.

Aisha Kisumo, 23, delivered a preterm baby in early November weighing 1.3 kilograms. Using the KMC technique, doctors tied the baby to her skin instead of keeping it in the incubator.

“My son would have died if I had stayed far from the hospital,” she said.​​​​​​​

According to the World Health Organization's (WHO) the global report on preterm births, nearly 15 million babies are born preterm each year, accounting for about one in 10 of all babies born worldwide and is the leading cause of death in children under the age of five.

Premature births occur when a baby is born too early, before completing 37 weeks in the mother’s womb.

“Kangaroo method is simple, it improves the baby’s temperature and creates a strong bond with mother,” Mtawa told Anadolu Agency.

According to her, since this technique was introduced in 2012, her hospital has saved the lives of 3,550 babies who were born prematurely.

Tanzania has one of the world’s highest maternal mortality rates at 556 deaths per 100,000 delivering mothers, according to the 2016 Tanzania Demographic Health Survey.

According to UNICEF, over 200,000 children are born prematurely in the country every year, and out of the approximately 9,500 expire.

Most of the deaths are caused by breathing problems related to premature lungs, infections, and complications triggered by low body temperatures, medical experts said.

Low-cost method to replace incubators

Acute shortage of incubators in public hospitals has forced doctors to let babies share the equipment thus increasing the risk of infections.

To cope with the growing challenge, medical workers in Tanzania adopted this low-cost method as an alternative approach for premature baby care.

Health experts said that KMC has proved an effective method to save babies as they get warmth from the mother’s body, which also protects them from infections. They recommend that skin-to-skin contact between mother and baby should be done for about 20 hours.

“This method has many benefits and has been proven to significantly raise survival rates,” said Asery Mchomvu a senior gynecologist at Mission Mikocheni Hospital.

“Skin to skin contact helps the baby gain warmth, stays calm and help regulate her heartbeats, enhance bonding, and help establish good breastfeeding practice,” he said.

He said that premature babies have difficulty breathing and often have a low suckling reflex which makes breastfeeding harder.

Cleopatra Mtei a trained attendant at the Muhimbili National Hospital said mothers who are getting admitted to the Kangaroo Medical Unit (KMU) are trained to seek better nutrition to establish a good supply of milk to feed the babies.

“We have managed to help premature babies by increasing their weight to the right proportion. Mother’s warmth is necessary to maintain the growth of an infant” said Mtawa.

She said the technique has proved to be a lifeline to save premature babies in rural and hard-to-reach areas where access to incubators is limited.