Bahati Traoré holds her sleeping newborn daughter, wrapped securely against her for warmth to reduce the risk of hypothermia, at the Kita Regional Reference Health Centre in the town of Kita in the western Kayes Region of Mali. The treatment is part of the ‘Kangaroo Mother Care’ method and was invented in Colombia in the 1980s to provide an alternative for premature or underweight newborns who have no access to incubators. Ms. Traoré’s daughter was born at a nearby centre two months early – a delivery brought on by shock following the death of another of her children, from malaria. The Kangaroo Mother Care method is now a standard treatment in Malian regional reference centres and is taught as a best practice in UNICEF-supported midwife trainings.
© UNICEF/NYHQ2010-2330/Olivier Asselin
Mali, 2010
(via darksilenceinsuburbia)
