KMC is an evidence-based approach recommended by the World Health Organization to reduce mortality and morbidity in low-birth-weight (LBW) and preterm infants.
Despite Malawi’s success in scaling up availability of KMC services in all central and district hospitals, the quality of KMC services is still not up to standard. The success of KMC depends on ability of mothers and caregivers to practice continuous skin-to-skin contact. Barriers to skin-to-skin practices reported by mothers in Malawi using traditional chitenje as wraps include the difficulty to hold a baby in the front, concerns about the stability of the baby, the requirement for two people to tie the wrap, thick wrap material that overheats, and irritation from the large knot at the back.
In an effort to improve KMC practices, Lærdal Global Health (LGH) has developed an ergonomic baby carrier (a KMC wrap) that can be produced locally at low cost ). However, operations research is needed to determine whether the customized wrap improves KMC practices and whether it can be produced locally in a sustainable way. To address these research gaps, a study will be conducted in three large hospitals in the southern and central regions of Malawi: Machinga district hospital, Thyolo district hospital, and Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (Blantyre district).