X INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON KANGAROO MOTHER CARE (KMC)

What it seemed a target 2 years ago, is now an achievement. Rwanda complied in a high level last 17th – 19th of November 2014 in Kigali, capital of the African country RWANDA, as the host for this event which is held every two years, in which leaders and high level speakers, exposed their scientific advances and experiences about the premature and low birth weight baby to an audience avid for knowledge, forgers of better practices around the world; an audience coming from developed and developing countries, where the Kangaroo Cares are the hope for a quality of survival for those babies.

The hosts and organizer committee, prepared a program that included all the last high standard information and a wide thematic coverage regarding KMC. As a venue for this conference, Rwanda have developed impressive strategies in the reduction of the infant mortality rate, joining the world to promote the achievements of the development objectives for the millennium.

The general topic of this conference was: “Kangaroo Mother Care: an effective way to improve the survival and the quality of survival of preterm and low birth weight infants: evidences and successes”

Representatives of England, South Africa, USA, Colombia, Brazil, Philippines, Madagascar, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Gujarat & Delhi (India), France, Uganda, Malawi, Indonesia, Zambia and of course Rwanda, among others, were there to reveal and present their latest progress and to answer to the audience questions.

To expose appropriately each topic, the agenda was scheduled in different sessions:

• Science in KMC
• The art of KMC practice.
• Implementing, Planning and running a KMC local Program + Health services, Systems and KMC: Local, national, regional and international settings.

Amongst some of the presentations you can find the following:

Quality of life and follow up to 10 years, Breastfeeding the Premature Infant, Accelerating scale up of KMC,Low Birth Weight Infants Discharged Home in Kangaroo Position, Care behaviors and Hypothermia, Kangaroo Mother Care and Neonatal Outcomes, The neuroscience of separation and non-separation, KMC, Concepts, definitions and praxis, Impact of KMC on global neonatal mortality rate, Improved quality survival needs support for sleep cycling, Incidence of Retinopathy of Prematurity, Prolactin Level and Breast milk Production among Mothers of Low Birth Weight Infants, Evaluation of KMC in Rwanda, Care seeking behaviors and hypothermia risk factors, Challenge to implement KMC in hospitals, How to promote early KMC in a NICU, Challenges of Implementation of Kangaroo, Mother Care Unit in Madagascar.

For more information, click HERE to check the Conference memories (Agenda, presentations, and a photo gallery)

CALL OF PAPERS FOR THE X INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON KMC AT KIGALI, RWANDA

As previously displayed in our network, The Rwanda Ministry of Health in collaboration with Rwanda Pediatric Association is organizing the 10th international KMC conference to be held on November 17-19, 2014 in Kigali city.

We want to inform you that the deadline for submission of papers and abstracts is August 30th of 2014.

Please check here for more information about submissions.

Good day Kangaroologists

Time is running and we’re getting closer to our X International Conference on KMC at Kigali, Rwanda and we all have to be prepared for it;since the Ebola virus is a big concern to take into account right now, here are the instructions that the Health Ministry of the Republic of Rwanda published regarding entry restrictions by air and road transportation. 

 

Please check the attachment:

Ebola-Instruction_on_entry_restrictions_Air.pdf

Ebola-Instruction_to_cross_border_road_trasport.pdf

Ebola-_Instruction_on_expenses_for_management.pdf

Consensus On Kangaroo Mother Care Acceleration

On Oct 21–22, 2013, stakeholders in newborn health, convened in Istanbul, Turkey, to discuss how to accelerate the implementation of kangaroo mother care (KMC) globally. Focused attention on newborn deaths, which now account for 44% of under-5 mortality. Is required to accelerate progress towards Millennium Development Goal (to reduce child mortality by two-thirds) and beyond. KMC has been proven to reduce newborn mortality, but only a very small proportion of newborns who could benefit from KMC receive it. The Istanbul convening was assembled to accelerate the uptake of this life-saving intervention.

 WE, THE KANGAROO FOUNDATION CALL FOR INVESTMENTS IN DEVELOPING NEWBORN CARE INFRASTRUCTURE, INCLUDING FACILITIES, FOR MOTHERS AND BABIES WHERE KMC IS IMPLEMENTED, AND FOR DEVELOPING SKILLED HEALTH WORKFORCE TO SUPPORT MOTHERS AND FAMILIES IN PROVIDING QUALITY KMC TO THEIR BABIES.

We affirm accelerating adoption of KMC, recognizing that:

• Prematurity is a major cause of newborn death and disability globally. Each year, preterm complications account for over 1 million deaths, or 35% of all neonatal mortality.

• We have an evidence-based solution for reducing preterm mortality and morbidity: KMC, which can avert up to 450.000 preterm deaths each year if near-universal coverage is achieved.

• Investment in KMC has beneficial effects beyond survival, including healthy growth and development. KMC comprises a set of care practices for low birth weight newborns—including continuous skin-to-skin contact, establishing breastfeeding, and close follow-up after discharge from a health facility. Additionally, skin-to-skin contact and exclusive breast feeding are beneficial for all newborns and mothers, and can further accelerate reduction of newborn deaths.

Global implementation of quality KMC for preterm newborns has not kept pace with the robust, long-standing evidence for the following reasons:

• KMC is incorrectly perceived as a practice for preterm newborns in low-income countries, as a “next-best” alternative to incubator care.

• Many health-care providers (at all levels) do not know or do not believe in the benefits of KMC, and lack the skills for effective implementation.

• Cultural and social norms related to mother and newborn practices make uptake of KMC challenging.

• Human resources for health required for KMC have been lacking, and the role of mothers and communities has been overlooked.

• KMC has not been included in many country-level government newborn agendas and policies. Based on the available evidence we reached consensus, , that KMC should be adopted and accelerated as the standard of care and an essential intervention for preterm newborns. We defined success as augmented and sustained global and national level action to achieve 50% coverage of KMC among preterm newborns by the year 2020 as part of an integrated RMNCH package, and propose the following call for action to achieve this goal:

IRevise WHO KMC guidelines and country-level government health agendas and policies to define KMC as standard of care for all preterm newborns.

IIIncorporate high-quality KMC in national RMNCH and nutrition policies, plans, and programs.

IIIEngage health professional associations in high-income countries to adopt KMC as standard of care, to mitigate beliefs that KMC is only for low-income countries.

IV Address local and context-specific, cultural barriers in the design of KMC guidelines, protocols, and education.

VRally communities and families to support mothers in the practice of KMC and address misconceptions and stigma associated with preterm birth, early bonding, skin-to-skin practices, and breastfeeding.

VI Improve practitioner uptake of KMC by working with professional associations, ministries of health, and traditional leaders, who can work with local providers to overcome barriers related to workforce, skills, and cultural norms.

VII Develop a unified advocacy narrative that culturally and medically normalizes KMC, with messages that can be adapted in different contexts.

VIIIMeasure our progress against our definition of success, using robust metrics and indicators.

IXConduct research, to better understand optimal timing, duration, and conditions for KMC, its impact on development and survival segmented by gestational age, how to tackle barriers to KMC practice, change provider behaviors, and cost analyses of establishing KMC services.

The KMC Acceleration Convening in Istanbul was a key opportunity to build consensus for accelerated implementation of KMC. In conjunction with the upcoming Every Newborn Action Plan, the KMC acceleration plan outlined above can bend the curve on newborn mortality and give vulnerable newborns around the world a better chance of survival and health.

*Cyril Engmann, Stephen Wall, Gary Darmstadt, Bina Valsangkar, Mariam Claeson, on behalf of the participants of the Istanbul KMC Acceleration Meeting.

Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, WA 98102, USA (CE, GD, MC); and Save the Children Saving Newborn Lives, Washington D.C., USA (SW, BV).

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

We declare that we have no conflicts of interest.

1 UNICEF, WHO, The World Bank, UN. Levels and trends in child mortality, report 2013. Estimates developed by the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation. New York: United Nations Children’s Fund, 2013.

2 March of Dimes, Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, Save the Children, WHO; CP How son, MV Kinney, JE Lawn, eds. Born too soon: the global action report on preterm birth. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2012.

PARTICIPANTS OF THE ISTANBUL KMC ACCELERATION MEETING