Kangaroo Mother Care

The KMC project's purpose is to reduce neonatal mortality by improving the care of low birth weight newborns in India and Southeast Asia. Improved care will come from acquiring  Heated neonatal warmer beds and monitoring equipment  Special KMC attire used to hold infants safely for prolonged periods of time;  Furniture, fixtures and audio-visual equipment consisting of TV's and DVD's used for training of parents and professionals to be utilized in the expansion of the Neonatal Unit of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Dehli, India. KMC is a method of caring for low birth weight babies. It fosters health and well being by promoting thermal control, breastfeeding, infection prevention, and mother-child bonding. In KMC, the baby is continuously kept in skin-to-skin contact with the mother and breastfed exclusively. Special KMC attire allows for this to be safely and effectively carried out. KMC is initiated in the hospital and continued at home. There are several benefits to KMC, but one of the major benefits is that babies receiving KMC have more regular breathing and less predisposition to apnea. KMC protects against nosocomial (hospital-acquired) infections, and reduces the incidence of severe illness including pneumonia. Even after discharge from the hospital, the incidence of disease among babies managed with KMC is less.