EDITORIAL: Hosting Kangaroo mother care conference a vote of confidence in our healthcare

THE 10th annual International Conference on Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) will be held in Rwanda in November. KCM is a technique which offers an affordable and effective alternative to incubator care for babies born premature. The programme has been largely successful in Rwanda and perhaps that explains why the country was selected to host the three-day meet. This is a vote of confidence in the strides taken by Government to address maternal and reproductive health issues. There has been a series of success stories in health care over the years, which have positioned Rwanda as a role model in health care provision. The 1,000-days campaign, a project geared at wiping out malnutrition has seen improved feeding among children under five years, pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, as well as school going children, subsequently reducing morbidity and mortality. The robust health programmes have played part in bringing down acute malnutrition which stood at 3% in 2010, to 0.8% as of April 2014. Today 45,000 community based health workers (CBHWs) are based in different parts of the country (at least two in every village) to monitor and remind pregnant women to go for routine checkups, and this has seen more pregnant women receive health facility- based care. And this perhaps explains why the number of babies delivered in health facilities has been increasing overtime. For instance the percentage of babies delivered in conventional health facilities substantially increased from 52% in 2007-2008 to 69% in 2010. However , despite this impressive record , it is still work in progress and more needs to be done, especially in terms of training more skilled health workers and sensitisation of the masses at the grassroots. To keep the momentum, all stake holders must keep working on consolidating these gains as we address challenges in the health sector.

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EDITORIAL: Hosting Kangaroo mother care conference a vote of confidence in our healthcare