#GoodNews: How ‘Kangaroo Mother Care’ Helped Save These Triplets

The campaign advocates skin-to-skin contact of the mother and infant and breastfeeding immediately after birth.

Karnataka’s Renuka Hadapad, a 29-year-old mother of triplets, became the face of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) campaign, which saves premature babies with low birthweight.

On 25 October 2016, Hadapad delivered the triplets in Koppal who weighed less than 1,500 gms. In partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, WHO is working in three Indian districts and 14 Ethiopian regions to increase KMC and prevent infant deaths, especially among children weighing less than 2,500 gms.

KMC is essentially skin-to-skin contact of low-weight babies with mothers and exclusive breastfeeding as soon as they are born.

Of all the births, 27 percent babies born in India are underweight. WHO chose three districts from Karnataka, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh in 2016, given their vulnerability to infant mortality. St John's Medical College Hospital in Bengaluru has supported the project in Karnataka and the Karnataka Health Promotion Trust (KHPT) is implementing the project.

A senior officer from KHPT spoke to The Times of India about Hadapad’s normal delivery.

Renuka has two daughters and the family was hoping for a baby boy. Seeing the triplets, the family was a bit upset, but they were counselled. Renuka’s husband, Somappa, was supportive when we introduced them to Kangaroo Mother Care to save the babies, who were put in special newborn care unit (SNCU). She was in the hospital for 28 days.

Senior KHPT officer to ToI

The family was monitored even after Renuka was discharged. In November 2017, her case was presented at a WHO conference by Dr Rajani M, former deputy director, child health, health family welfare department.

KMC is a low-resource, evidence-based, high-impact, standardised intervention, which, like breast feeding, should be a part of routine newborn care. It can prevent half of all the deaths among newborns weighing less than 2,000 grams. The skill of providing KMC must be learnt by all healthcare providers, as it has got a social impact.

Dr Rajani to ToI

Dr Suman Rao, head of neonatology at St. John's Medcial College Hospital, travels to Koppal, Karnataka, once a month to create awareness about KMC.

This was the first time in my 18 years of experience that I saw a mother giving KMC to triplets at once. We suggest KMC for the first 28 days of a baby’s life and it can be increased depending on the child’s growth. Ideally, it should be given for 24 hours, but that’s tough for the mother in case of multiple gestations. The father, the mother’s sister and the grandmother can also provide skin-to-skin protection. It not only helps in temperature care, but also in the baby’s neuro development.

Dr Suman Rao

Through UNICEF funds the district administration has been, since October 2016, giving Rs 4,000 a month to Renuka for the babies' nutritional needs.

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