Implementation of Kangaroo mother care by health workers inNigeria
Abstract
Abstract:
Background: Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) has been proven to significantly improve growth, reduce mortality and morbidity in low birth weight infants. The impact of KMC in newborn care is expected to be greatest in Africa due to limitations in health care.
Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the proportion of Nigerian health workers rendering paediatric care who practice KMC in their institution, and identify some challenges affecting the practice of KMC in Nigerian health institutions.
Method: A cross sectional study of the participants at 45th annual scientific conference of the Paediatric Association of Nigeria was conducted.
Result: A total of157 respondents 122(77.7%) doctors and 35 (22.3%) nurses were studied. 84 (53.5%) practiced KMC. The reasons for not practicing KMC were lack of policy reported by 43 (58.9%) and inadequate place for the mothers to stay 30(41%).The level of practice was significantly higher among respondents that worked in facilities that care for sick neonates (p = 0.049), have functional incubators (p = 0.014) and practice KMC (p < 0.001).
Conclusion: Hospitals should have a written KMC policy and provide KMC wards in order to improve implementation of KMC practice in Nigeria.
Keywords: Health workers, kangaroo mother care, low birth weight, neonate, Nigeria
Published
Issue
Section
License
This is an open-access journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, transform, and build upon the work even, commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given to the author, and the new creations are licensed under identical terms