# Kangaroo mother care (KMC)

Intervention · id `maternal:kangaroo-mother-care` · Maternal & Newborn Atlas · release `15708f235d73cd42` (public)

> General information from published sources, not medical advice, and not reviewed by clinicians. Check the cited source before relying on anything here.

The atlas's own text and curation may be reused under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/): credit the atlas, and do not use it commercially. See the atlas About page. Text quoted from a source stays under that source's own terms, given as the source's reuse\_basis. The atlas's reuse terms do not cover it. The downloads list each quotation with its source in third\_party\_quotations.

Also called: KMC

Browse, life stage: Newborn  

## In plain language

Holding the baby skin-to-skin on the mother's chest for long periods, together with breastfeeding.

## Technical summary

WHO describes KMC as early, continuous and prolonged skin-to-skin contact between the mother (or another caregiver) and the baby, with exclusive breastfeeding (WHO 2022, A.1 Background).

## Connected pages

- Related care topic: Newborn thermal care (`maternal:newborn-thermal-care`)
- Related to: Care of the preterm or low-birth-weight infant (`maternal:preterm-lbw-care`)
- Has subtype: Immediate kangaroo mother care (`maternal:immediate-kmc`)

## Provenance

Content hash: 06eca1b6a188ce9a23eb07e026296011d0b1496fe4fd7d9368a4f67798007831
Last substantive edit: 2026-10-09
Evidence last checked: Not recorded