27 May 2025 • A major analysis involving 17,513 low-birthweight infants confirms that hospital-initiated kangaroo care (skin-to-skin contact) offers substantial protection against neonatal mortality and severe infections.

Key Findings:

• Compared with conventional neonatal care, kangaroo care reduced all-cause mortality by 23% (OR 0.77), sepsis by 45% (OR 0.55), and invasive infections like meningitis and pneumonia by 51% (OR 0.49).
• It also significantly cut sepsis-related or infection-related deaths (OR 0.63), hypothermia (OR 0.28), and apnea (OR 0.46).

These findings strongly support scaling up kangaroo care as a core component of neonatal infection prevention worldwide, especially in resource-limited settings where the impact could be lifesaving.

Source: The Lancet | Read Full Story