Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC)

The photography project KMC was borned in December 2011 by a meeting in Rome with a Franciscan sister Elisa Carta, head of Se.A.Mi., an humanitarian NGO founded in 1996. This organization was founded by some young Italian volunteers with the aim of being able to make a contribution to the ongoing remote Franciscan Missions based in sub-Saharan Africa, Burkina Faso, Congo and Togo. The photojournalistic project in progress, aims to document the activities and programs of help and support to the African people carried out by the Missionary Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi. In this context, the pictures are a part of the project proposal, about the experience at Tokoin Teaching Hospital Lome, Togo, Africa, the raising of premature infants by kangaroo method. After births, premature infants need a high level of medical treatments for their survivals in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) or in french language SMK (Soins Maternels Kangourou). The separation deprives mothers of the chance to initiate an attachment process. Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) is an ambulatory care technique for the low birth weight infants, which implicate the portage of the infant in Kangaroo position with skin- to-skin contact. KMC can be one of the ways to reunite mothers and their infants in the NICU and improve health outcomes. KMC has a significant positive impact on the infant’s perceptual- cognitive and motor development.