From village footpaths to roadside gatherings, mothers in remote Meghalaya are learning life-saving newborn care practices
ROOPAK GOSWAMI
Shillong, May 8: A baby kangaroo, or joey, is born tiny and underdeveloped and survives by staying tucked inside its mother’s pouch, close to her body for warmth, feeding and protection until it grows stronger.
Doctors later found that premature and low birth weight human babies need remarkably similar care. That simple idea led to Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) — a newborn care practice where mothers hold babies in continuous skin-to-skin contact to improve survival during the most vulnerable early days of life.
Now, in the remote villages of Amlarem Block, lessons on Kangaroo Mother Care are travelling far beyond hospitals and training halls. Mothers are learning about newborn care along village footpaths, roadside resting spaces and informal community gatherings where health workers stop to speak with families.
Under the Maternal, Newborn and Child Health–Human Centred Design (MNCH-HCD) Programme, teams from Tattva Foundation are raising awareness on life-saving newborn care directly into hard-to-reach communities across Meghalaya.
The programme is being implemented in two intervention blocks in Meghalaya — Amlarem Block in West Jaintia Hills district, where the focus is on Kangaroo Mother Care, and Umling Block in Ri-Bhoi district, where the focus is on identifying and managing high-risk pregnancies. Together, the initiative covers 120 villages and 44 health facilities across the two districts.
The initiative is being carried out with support from the State Health Systems Resource Centre (SHSRC), Meghalaya, NHM Meghalaya and UNICEF India. Assam Don Bosco University (ADBU) and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay are partners in the collaboration.
For premature and low birth weight babies, KMC is considered one of the simplest and most effective forms of care. Continuous skin-to-skin contact helps babies stay warm, improves breastfeeding and reduces the risk of infections.
The practice was first developed in Colombia in 1978 when a hospital facing a shortage of incubators encouraged mothers to provide continuous skin-to-skin care instead. The results were striking — babies stayed warmer, fed better and survived in greater numbers.
Today, the World Health Organisation recognises Kangaroo Mother Care as one of the world’s most effective low-cost newborn care interventions, especially in regions where advanced neonatal care is difficult to access.
India records nearly 3.5 million preterm births every year, making awareness around newborn care particularly important in geographically challenging states like Meghalaya, where families in remote villages may be hours away from the nearest health facility.
Instead of relying only on standard awareness material, the Meghalaya initiative has developed communication tools with inputs from mothers, ASHAs, ANMs and community workers themselves. These include KMC wrap demonstration guides, calendars and IEC materials translated into Khasi and tested within local communities.
Health workers involved in the outreach say the idea is to ensure that mothers receive information in familiar language and in ways that fit local realities.
The outreach is being carried out by district and block coordinators working alongside ASHAs, Anganwadi workers and ANMs, many of whom travel village-to-village to speak with mothers and caregivers about newborn care practices.
“In hill terrains where a mother may be hours away from the nearest health facility, knowledge itself becomes the first line of care. The effort is to ensure that this knowledge reaches her in her own language, through someone she trusts,” the programme team said.
The initiative highlights how healthcare awareness in remote hill regions can move beyond institutional settings through community participation and grassroots engagement.
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