JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Early neonatal mortality continues to challenge the public health system in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Despite the global reductions in neonatal and under-five infant mortalities, 15 million neonates are born preterm each year and are consequently at a higher risk of mortality. Within Asia, Pakistan reported the third highest neonatal mortality, with 8.6 million preterm babies. Kangaroo mother care (KMC) is a lifesaving intervention that has not been integrated within the existing health system.

Objective:

Study aims to develop and scale up district-level models for advancing KMC in a rural district of Sindh, Sanghar.

Methods:

Formative research will be undertaken to identify enablers and disablers that affect the implementation and utilization of KMC and design scalable models to deliver KMC across the facility-community continuum. This will be followed by applying and evaluating these models in established KMC sites. The administration of the actions will occur at three levels: 'pre-KMC facility', 'KMC facility', and 'post-KMC facility'. Stable infants with birth weight <2499 g born in the catchment population of the KMC facilities constituted the eligible population.

Results:

Ethics approval was obtained for project sites from Research Ethics Review Committee at Aga Khan University. The project results will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal for publication, in addition to national and global level dissemination.

Conclusions:

We will document notable achievements in policy and facility-level implementation at the KMC sites. Addressing identified gaps in future to promote acceptance of KMC for demand creation and facilitating the use of data for decision-making will be vital to ensure adequate coverage at scale