In praise of the WHO’s “Kangaroo Mother Care” programme, Adeleke

The World Health Organisation, the Federal Ministry of Health, and the research team behind the Kangaroo Mother Care Project for low-weight babies have all received praise from Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke for selecting the state as one of the five states to benefit from the programme.

During an advocacy visit to Osogbo, the state capital, Adeleke was given a speech by members of the investigative team working on the project, the Federal Ministry of Health, and officials of the World Health Organisation.The governor added, “Kangaroo mother care project would promote healthy living, especially for the mothers and low-weight babies,” and stated that the “implementation of the initiative would start from the state Specialist Hospital, Asubiaro and later moved to state General Hospital, Ede.

” The governor was represented by Dr. Kola Akinrinoye, Chairman of the Osun State Hospital Management Board.”We wish you our guests all the best and we assure you of the government’s readiness to work with the team with the hope that more World Health Organisation programmes will come to the state,” the governor continued, as reported in a bulletin released by the Ministry of Information on Wednesday.

The principal investigator, professor Ebunoluwa Adejuyigbe, has before discussed the many advantages of kangaroo mother care, which involves holding a newborn to a mother’s chest for skin-to-skin contact. This is especially true for newborns who are born underweight.

In addition to supporting low-weight newborns’ physical health when paired with exclusive breastfeeding, Adejuyigbe said that Kangaroo mother care has the potential to save up to 150,000 or more lives yearly.

This would also strengthen the link between the mother and child.Prof. Harish Chellani, a consultant for the World Health Organisation, stated in his presentation that studies carried out in five nations—including Nigeria and India—had shown that keeping the mother and child together in a KMC has numerous benefits, such as giving the newborn warmth, encouraging early breastfeeding, and preventing infection.