First lady opens Kangaroo Mother Care Centre at PIMS for premature newborns

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ISLAMABAD, Nov 22 (APP):First Lady Samina Arif Alvi on Friday stressed raising awareness among mothers about healthy pregnancy to avert premature births, one of the leading causes of child mortality in Pakistan with 600 newborn deaths per day.

She was speaking at the inauguration of capital’s first Kangaroo Mother Care Centre set up at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) with support of United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and World Health Organization (WHO).

The Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) is a low-cost initiative where preterm newborns, as an alternative to incubator, are kept in prolonged skin-to-skin contact with their mothers for natural warmth required for life-saving.

The idea was first conceived in 1978 by health experts in North America inspired from mother kangaroos who carry babies in their open-to-world pouches, where development from embryo to newborn takes place.

The First Lady expressed concern over the 250,000 newborn deaths in Pakistan each year, with one-third due to preterm births. She said the serious situation required immediate steps to expand the Kangaroo Mother Care Centres at all hospitals and nurseries across the country to reduce the rate of child deaths.

She said the technique would in particular help the under-privileged families to avoid costly treatment of incubators for premature newborns.

Samina Alvi said the role of doctors, lady health workers and media was significant in sensitizing pregnant mothers about healthy nutrition to reduce premature deliveries.
She lauded the Kangaroo Mother Care Centre at PIMS launched in the month marking the World Prematurity Day globally on November 17.

Parliamentary Secretary for National Health Services Nosheen Hamid said the government was fully committed to ensure mother and child healthcare and mentioned that eight similar centres were already functional in the country with five in Punjab, and one each in Sindh, Khyber Pukhtunkhwa and Azad Jammu & Kashmir.

Head of WHO mission in Pakistan Palitha Mahipala said this year’s theme ‘Born Too Soon: Providing right care at right time and place’ was relevant to Pakistan for its high child mortality rate and urged upon the federal and provincial governments to follow the WHO guidelines on Kangaroo care concept.

UNICEF Pakistan representative Aida Girma-Melaku said her organization would continue supporting the government in expanding the KMC network to overcome its challenge of 600 neonatal deaths per day.

She said progress towards global goals for health and well-being was only possible after reducing the number of preterm births and deaths of children under five years of age.

Pediatrician at PIMS Dr Haider Shirazi said child mortality rate of Pakistan was fourth highest in the world mostly due to asphyxia, preterm and infections. He said the Kangaroo method remarkably improves the weight and heartbeat of premature babies at faster pace as compared to incubators, thus proving also helpful both for their physical and mental growth.

Executive Director PIMS appreciated the services of Dr Samia Rashid and Dr Atiya Aabroo in materializing the milestone project in the field of neonatal healthcare.

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