Effect on neonatal sepsis following immediate kangaroo mother care in a newborn intensive care unit: a post-hoc analysis of a multicentre, open-label, randomised controlled trial

• Published in: EClinicalMedicine 2023-06, Vol.60, p.102006, Article 102006
• Main Authors: Arya, Sugandha, Chhabra, Suhail, Singhal, Richa, Kumari, Archana, Wadhwa, Nitya, Anand, Pratima, Naburi, Helga, Kawaza, Kondwani, Newton, Sam, Adejuyigbe, Ebunoluwa, Westrup, Bjorn, Bergman, Nils, Rettedal, Siren, Linner, Agnes, Chauhan, Rahul, Rani, Nisha, Minckas, Nicole, Yoshida, Sachiyo, Rao, Suman, Chellani, Harish
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Immediate kangaroo mother care (iKMC); Low birth weight (LBW); Medicin och hälsovetenskap; Mother newborn care unit (MNCU); Neonatal sepsis
• ISSN: 2589-5370; 2589-5370
• DOI: 10.1016/j.eclinm.2023.102006

To implement the immediate Kangaroo mother care (iKMC) intervention in the previous multicentre, open-label, randomised controlled trial, the mother or a surrogate caregiver and neonate needed to be together continuously, which led to the concept of the Mother–Newborn Care Unit (MNCU). Health-care providers and administrators were concerned of the potential increase in infections caused by the continuous presence of mothers or surrogates in the MNCU. We aimed to assess the incidence of neonatal sepsis in sub-groups and the bacterial profile among intervention and control neonates in the study population. This is a post-hoc analysis of the previous iKMC trial, which was conducted in five level 2 Newborn Intensive Care Units (NICUs) one each in Ghana, India, Malawi, Nigeria, and Tanzania, in neonates with birth weight 1 to