Neonatology

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Kangaroo mother care, skin-to-skin contact

Afghanistan

• Ministry of Public Health Afghanistan
  • Kangaroo Mother Care Guideline [2017]

• PLoS ONE
  • Prevalence and factors associated with mother and newborn skin-to-skin contact in Afghanistan [2025]

Asia

• BMC International Health and Human Rights
  • The three waves in implementation of facility-based kangaroo mother care: a multi-country case study from Asia [2016]

Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa

• Journal of Global Health
  • Monitoring the implementation and scale-up of a life-saving intervention for preterm and small babies: Facility-based Kangaroo Mother Care [2021]

Australia

• WA Health
  • Skin to Skin Holding

Bangladesh

• BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth
  • Prevalence and determinants of mother and newborn skin-to-skin contact: an assessment from the 2017-18 BDHS data [2025]
  • Prevalence and factors associated with skin-to-skin contact (SSC) practice: findings from a population-based cross-sectional survey in 10 selected districts of Bangladesh [2021]

• Bulletin of the World Health Organization
  • Implementation research on kangaroo mother care, Bangladesh [2022]

• Implementation Science Communications
  • Fidelity of kangaroo mother care services in the public health facilities in Bangladesh: a cross-sectional mixed-method study [2021]

Brazil

• Ciência & Saúde Coletiva
  • Factors associated with skin-to-skin contact less than 180 min/day in newborns weighing up to 1,800 g: multicenter study [2023]

• Jornal de Pediatria
  • Skin-to-skin contact and deaths in newborns weighing up to 1800 grams: a cohort study [2022]

Canada

• Canadian Paediatric Society
  • Skin-to-skin care (SSC) for term and preterm infants [2024]

• Perinatal Services BC
  • Skin-to-Skin Contact Key Messages for Health Care Providers [2023]

Canada, United Kingdom, United States

• Acta Paediatrica
  • The content, experiences and outcomes of interventions designed to increase early skin-to-skin contact in high-income settings: A mixed-methods systematic review [2023]

China

• BMJ Open
  • Neonatal intensive care nurses’ knowledge and beliefs regarding kangaroo care in China: a national survey [2018]

• International Breastfeeding Journal
  • Intermittent kangaroo mother care and the practice of breastfeeding late preterm infants: results from four hospitals in different provinces of China [2020]

• World Journal of Pediatrics
  • Implementation experience of a 12-month intervention to introduce intermittent kangaroo mother care to eight Chinese neonatal intensive care units [2022]

Colombia

• BMJ Global Health
  • Follow-up of Kangaroo Mother Care programmes in the last 28 years: results from a cohort of 57 154 low-birth-weight infants in Colombia [2023]

Developing countries

• Jornal de Pediatria
  • The effectiveness of Kangaroo Mother Care in hospitalization period of preterm and low birth weight infants: systematic review and meta-analysis [2022]

East Africa

• PLOS Global Public Health
  • Mother and newborn skin to skin contact in East Africa: Prevalence and predictors (2019-2023) [2025]

Ethiopia

• BioMed Research International
  • Maternal Health Service Uptake Is Associated with a Higher Skin-to-Skin Care Practice in Ethiopia: Result from a National Survey [2020]

• BMC Pediatrics
  • Health professional assisted Kangaroo mother care practice in Ethiopian health care facilities: evidence from the 2016 Ethiopian demographic and health survey [2023]

• Ministry of Health Ethiopia
  • Kangaroo Mother Care Technical and Implementation Guideline [2023]

• PLoS ONE
  • Spatial variation and determinants of mother and newborn skin-to-skin contact care practices in Ethiopia: A spatial and multilevel mixed-effect analysis [2024]
  • Knowledge, attitude and practice towards kangaroo mother care among postnatal women in Ethiopia: Systematic review and meta-analysis [2022]
  • Quality of Kangaroo Mother Care services in Ethiopia: Implications for policy and practice [2019]

Europe

• European Standards of Care for Newborn Health
  • Very early and continuous skin-to-skin contact
  • Facilitation of skin-to-skin care and parental involvement through the physical environment

Gambia

• Journal of the Egyptian Public Health Association
  • Prevalence and determinants of mother and newborn skin-to-skin contact in The Gambia: a secondary data analysis [2020]

Ghana

• Ghana Medical Journal
  • Progress with the Implementation of Kangaroo Mother Care in Four Regions in Ghana [2013]

High-income countries

• Maternal & Child Nutrition
  • The nine stages of skin-to-skin: practical guidelines and insights from four countries [2020]

India

• Indian Journal of Pediatrics
  • Mother-Newborn Care Unit (MNCU) Experience in India: A Paradigm Shift in Care of Small and Sick Newborns [2022]

• Ministry of Health and Family Welfare India
  • Kangaroo Mother Care and Optimal Feeding of Low Birth Weight Infants [2014]

International

• Acta Paediatrica
  • Skin-to-skin contact after birth: Developing a research and practice guideline [2023]
  • Strategies discussed at the XIIth international conference on Kangaroo mother care for implementation on a countrywide scale [2020]

• Advances in Clinical and Experimental Medicine
  • Evaluation of the impact of kangaroo mother care on neonatal mortality and hospitalization: A meta-analysis [2023]

• BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth
  • Essential components of an educational program for implementing skin-to-skin contact for preterm infants in intensive care units: an integrative literature review [2024]
  • What influences the implementation of kangaroo mother care? An umbrella review [2022]

• BMJ Global Health
  • Kangaroo mother care for preterm or low birth weight infants: a systematic review and meta-analysis [2023]

• BMJ Open
  • Measuring the duration of kangaroo mother care for neonates: a scoping review [2025]

• Bulletin of the World Health Organization
  • Effects of kangaroo mother care on maternal and paternal health: systematic review and meta-analysis [2023]

• Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
  • Kangaroo mother care to reduce morbidity and mortality in low birthweight infants [2016]
  • Early skin-to-skin contact for mothers and their healthy newborn infants [2016]

• Frontiers in Psychology
  • New policies on skin-to-skin contact warrant an oxytocin-based perspective on perinatal health care [2024]

• International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
  • Effects of Kangaroo Mother Care in the NICU on the Physiological Stress Parameters of Premature Infants: A Meta-Analysis of RCTs [2022]

• Journal of Education and Health Promotion
  • Effect of Kangaroo Mother Care on hospital management indicators: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials [2019]

• Journal of Global Health
  • What is kangaroo mother care? Systematic review of the literature [2016]

• Journal of Neonatal Nursing
  • Role of kangaroo mother care in modulating microbiome and enhancing neonatal outcomes: A comprehensive review [2025]

• Journal of the Turkish German Gynecological Association
  • The effect of mother-infant skin-to-skin contact immediately after birth on exclusive breastfeeding: a systematic review and meta-analysis [2020]

• Lancet Child & Adolescent Health
  • All-cause mortality and infection-related outcomes of hospital-initiated kangaroo care versus conventional neonatal care for low-birthweight infants: a systematic review and meta-analysis [2025]

• Maternal & Child Nutrition
  • Immediate or early skin-to-skin contact after a Caesarean section: a review of the literature [2014]

• Neonatology
  • Effect of Neonatal Unit Interventions Designed to Increase Breastfeeding in Preterm Infants: An Overview of Systematic Reviews [2024]

• PLoS ONE
  • Worldwide prevalence of mother-infant skin-to-skin contact after vaginal birth: A systematic review [2018]

• United Nations Children's Fund - UNICEF
  • Skin-to-skin contact - Baby Friendly Initiative

• Women and Children Nursing
  • Evidence summary: How to implement early mother-infant skin-to-skin contact after delivery [2024]

Iran

• BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth
  • Predicting mother and newborn skin-to-skin contact using a machine learning approach [2025]

Italy

• Italian Journal of Pediatrics
  • Surveying family access: kangaroo mother care and breastfeeding policies across NICUs in Italy [2021]

Kenya

• Ministry of Health Kenya
  • Kangaroo Mother Care: Clinical Implementation Guidelines 2023 [2023]

Low and middle income countries

• African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine
  • Facilitating factors and barriers to kangaroo mother care utilisation in low- and middle-income countries: A scoping review [2021]

• Bulletin of the World Health Organization
  • Improving the implementation of kangaroo mother care [2021]

• Lancet Digital Health
  • Wireless skin sensors for physiological monitoring of infants in low-income and middle-income countries [2021]

• New England Journal of Medicine
  • Immediate Kangaroo Mother Care and Survival of Low Birth Weight Infants [2021]

Malawi

• Journal of Global Health
  • Readiness of hospitals to provide Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) and documentation of KMC service delivery: Analysis of Malawi 2014 Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (EmONC) survey data [2017]

Malaysia

• Ministry of Health Malaysia
  • Kangaroo Mother Care [2014]

Mexico

• International Breastfeeding Journal
  • Influence of skin-to-skin contact on breastfeeding: results of the Mexican National Survey of Demographic Dynamics, 2018 [2022]

Middle East

• Nutrients
  • Review of Kangaroo Mother Care in the Middle East [2022]

New Zealand

• Starship
  • Kangaroo care

Nigeria

• BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth
  • Coverage and factors associated with mother and newborn skin-to-skin contact in Nigeria: a multilevel analysis [2021]

• International Breastfeeding Journal
  • Skin-to-skin contact and breastfeeding practices in Nigeria: a study of socioeconomic inequalities [2021]

Pakistan

• BMJ Case Reports
  • Kangaroo mother care: need of the day [2019]

Papua New Guinea

• BMJ Open
  • Prevalence and predictors of mother and newborn skin-to-skin contact at birth in Papua New Guinea [2022]

Philippines

• BMJ Global Health
  • Scaling up kangaroo mother care in the Philippines using policy, regulatory and systems reform to drive changes in birth practices [2021]

Republic of Korea

• Acta Paediatrica
  • The Effect of Immediate Skin-to-Skin Contact on Exclusive Breastfeeding: An Instrumental Variable Approach [2025]

Spain

• Anales de Pediatría (English Edition)
  • Consensus document for the kangaroo mother care method [2024]
  • Kangaroo care during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in Spain [2021]

• Sociedad Española de Neonatología
  • Survey on the practice of skin-to-skin contact in Spanish neonatal units during the first days of life. Influence of the presence of umbilical catheters [2025]

Sub-Saharan Africa

• BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth
  • Barriers and facilitators of facility-based kangaroo mother care in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review [2021]

• BMJ Global Health
  • Mother and newborn skin-to-skin contact in sub-Saharan Africa: prevalence and predictors [2022]

• PLoS ONE
  • Mother and newborn skin-to-skin contact and timely initiation of breastfeeding in sub-Saharan Africa [2023]

Sweden

• Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, & Neonatal Nursing
  • Protocol to Support Skin-to-Skin Care and Closeness Between Parents and Neonates in the NICU [2025]

Uganda

• BMC Pediatrics
  • Kangaroo mother care among hospitalised neonates: evaluation of the validity of duration measurement methods compared to observation linked to the OMWaNA trial in Uganda [2025]

• Lancet
  • Effectiveness of kangaroo mother care before clinical stabilisation versus standard care among neonates at five hospitals in Uganda (OMWaNA): a parallel-group, individually randomised controlled trial and economic evaluation [2024]

• Scientific Reports
  • The impact of implementing and sustaining the international guidelines for skin-to-skin contact in the first hour after birth in Uganda [2024]

United Kingdom

• BMJ Innovations
  • Why is Kangaroo Mother Care not yet scaled in the UK? A systematic review and realist synthesis of a frugal innovation for newborn care [2022]

• National Institute for Health and Care Excellence
  • Quality statement 7: Skin-to-skin contact [2017]

United States

• American Academy of Pediatrics
  • Safe Sleep and Skin-to-Skin Care in the Neonatal Period for Healthy Term Newborns [2016]
  • Skin-to-Skin Care for Term and Preterm Infants in the Neonatal ICU [2015]

• Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses
  • Immediate and Sustained Skin-to-Skin Contact for Healthy Late Preterm and Term Newborns After Birth: AWHONN Practice Brief Number 14 [2021]

• Health Systems & Reform
  • Separation of Maternal and Newborn Care in US Hospitals: A Systemic Threat to Survival, Health and Well-Being [2023]

Vietnam

• Children
  • Kangaroo Mother Care in Vietnam: A National Survey of a Middle-Income Country [2022]

• Pediatrics and Neonatology
  • The effect of skin-to-skin contact on early initiation of breastfeeding among women in Vietnam [2024]

WHO

• World Health Organization
  • Kangaroo mother care: a transformative innovation in health care. Global position paper. [2023]
  • Kangaroo mother care - Implementation strategy for scale-up adaptable to different country contexts [2023]
  • Kangaroo mother care: a practical guide [2003]
  • Kangaroo mother care to reduce morbidity and mortality in low-birth-weight infants
  • Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) Scale-up toolkit
  • Early skin-to-skin contact for mothers and their healthy newborn infants

WHO Western Pacific Region

• WHO Western Pacific Region
  • Introducing and sustaining EENC in hospitals : kangaroo mother care for pre-term and low-birthweight infants [2018]

{Related topics}

• Topic
  • Newborn
  • Breastfeeding promotion