Review of Kangaroo Mother Care in the Middle East

Abstract

Mothers and newborns have a natural physiological requirement to be together immediately after birth. A newborn has a keen sense of smell and will instinctively seek out the mother’s nipple and begin breastfeeding if placed skin-to-skin with her. This practice is known as Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC). It was first suggested in 1978 and has been recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a means to ensure successful breastfeeding. It is well documented that KMC is associated with positive breastfeeding outcomes, particularly in cases where breastfeeding is exclusive and, on average, continued for 3 months or longer. Studies of infant nutrition and breastfeeding have shown the importance of immediate, uninterrupted skin-to-skin contact between newborn and mother following vaginal birth. This practice is also recommended for mothers who give birth via cesarean section, once the newborn is stable. The rate of breastfeeding is still suboptimal in Middle Eastern countries, in light of the WHO’s recommendation that mothers should exclusively breastfeed for the first six months and continue breastfeeding for up to two years. To increase the rate of breastfeeding, practices should be promoted that have been shown to improve outcomes, such as KMC. However, little is known about this important practice in the region. The aim of this study was to shed light on KMC-related studies conducted in the Middle East between January 2010 and January 2022. Specifically, this review examines breastfeeding practice rates for the first 6 months of birth, and evidence of KMC practices, by country and type of study design. The research terms used for this review were “skin to skin”, “Skin to skin contact”, and “Kangaroo Mother Care”, focusing on “Middle East”, “Eastern Mediterranean”, “Arabian Gulf”, “Arab”, and “GCC”.

Kangaroo Mother Care Induced Serum Oxytocin Facilitates Prolactin and IL-10 Among Emergency Cesarean Mothers

“…Many studies have documented data on attitude, knowledge and implementation of KMC among nurses in Saudi Arabia. [33][34][35] In the study region, it was found that KMC was less often in practice due to newborn infants often being separated from their mothers and hence delayed breastfeeding initiation for hours or days was observed. 17 The present study's aim was to determine the hormonal levels after intermittent KMC practice in mothers who had emergency C-section and compare them with the non-KMC C-section group.…”

Exploring Missed Nursing Care in the NICU: Perspectives of NICU Nurses in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Health Cluster

“…The lack of coordination among different professionals is often considered the main obstacle [ 25 ]. Moreover, there is a need for additional and ongoing research to describe KC in various countries, especially in the Middle East [ 26 ].…”

“…The findings of this research are similar to those of previous research on the same topic. Patient care activities with time-sensitive and core tasks need to receive higher priority than needs that may be perceived as time-consuming and not urgent in terms of patient safety, such as comfort care and parental emotional support, and thus there may be a perception that missing them will not have serious impacts on patients’ health [ 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 ].…”

Human breastmilk-derived Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis CCFM1269 regulates bone formation by the GH/IGF axis through PI3K/AKT pathway

“… 3 Breastfeeding is the recommended feeding method by the World Health Organization for the first six months of life. 4 Breast milk is an important source of intestinal microbiota for infants. 5 and breastfeeding enables the vertical transmission of microorganisms from mother to infants.…”