WHO - World Health Organization Regional Office for The Western Pacific

06/11/2025 | News release | Distributed by Public on 06/10/2025 10:27

Simple, but lifesaving: skin-to-skin contact immediately after birth

When Leslie, a medical doctor from Aklan Province in the Philippines, was just 36 weeks pregnant, she went into labour. "Our baby was premature," says Leslie. "She was small for her gestational age, at just 2.3 pounds. The first few weeks were very difficult for us."

Premature birth is one of the leading causes of newborn death. In the World Health Organization (WHO) Western Pacific Region, one newborn dies every 5 minutes - largely due to inappropriate clinical practices at the time of birth.

To help address this, WHO developed Early Essential Newborn Care (EENC) - a set of simple, cost-effective interventions proven to save newborn lives. One important part of EENC is immediate and prolonged skin-to-skin contact between mother and baby. For preterm and low-birth-weight babies, extended skin-to-skin contact is one component of a practice known as Kangaroo Mother Care, which can reduce the risk of infectious diseases, developmental delays and death.

"The baby needs your heat," explains Leslie. "You don't need any equipment or incubator. By putting them on your chest, you're already helping your baby."

Immediate skin-to-skin contact, without clothing or wraps, has many benefits for both mother and baby. It can stimulate the baby's immune system and stabilize their body temperature, while also enabling an easy first breastfeed, establishing a close bond and reducing the risk of postpartum depression for the mother.

Leslie's husband gives skin-to-skin contact to their newborn baby. Anyone can practice Kangaroo Mother Care, including mothers, fathers and grandparents. Photo credit: Dr L.A. Sedillo

Since 2014, WHO has worked alongside the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and countries in the Western Pacific Region to bring EENC and Kangaroo Mother Care into health facilities, through supporting guidelines, training and resources. Over the past decade, EENC has saved lives in nine priority countries where 95% of newborn deaths occurred in the Region. The practice has been implemented in 6500 childbirth facilities, where more than 42 000 health-care providers have received coaching.

By 2023, nearly half (47.2%) of full-term newborns in the Region received at least 90 minutes of uninterrupted skin-to-skin contact − a notable improvement. However, the practice remains significantly less common for preterm and low-birth-weight infants, with fewer than one in four benefiting from this essential intervention.

Health facility managers can play an important role in improving this by ensuring that health workers receive up-to-date training and support on EENC and Kangaroo Mother Care. WHO has support and resources available, such as this KMC coaching video.

Alongside support from health workers and facilities, Leslie highlights the importance of sharing the responsibility of continuous skin-to-skin contact. "Anyone, including mothers, fathers, lolas and lolos [grandparents] can do Kangaroo Mother Care."


Leslie with her baby and husband. After being born premature, Kangaroo Mother Care helped the baby to catch up to other kids her age. Photo credit: Dr L.A. Sedillo

For Leslie and her baby, the benefits have been clear. "Now at 4 months, she's already at par with other kids her age," she says. "She's very active, she's very attentive and the bond between me and her is very strong. Kangaroo Mother Care was really critical and very helpful."

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