“Our” Africa recently made an appearance in Baltimore, taking part in the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) Annual Meeting, an international research gathering on pediatrics and neonatology, to share its findings on the Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) method as a decisive factor for improving the health of premature newborns in low-resource settings.

Doctors with Africa CUAMM and the University of Padua presented a poster at the meeting showing how they were able to reduce the neonatal mortality rate at the Beira Hospitalin Mozambique by providing KMC and neonatal reanimation training for midwives. Even in countries with few resources or technology, in fact, skin-to-skin contact and the warmth of a mother’s body help such infants to develop in a healthy manner.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, neonatal mortality due to premature delivery, infections and obstetric complications is still extremely high. To combat such phenomena in the Beira Hospital’s neonatal care unit,Doctors with Africa CUAMM is intervening at multiple levels to improve infrastructure, equipment and local clinical protocols.