Effectiveness of Video-Assisted Teaching on Kangaroo Mother Care Among Postnatal Mothers

Abstract

Kangaroo mother care, holding a small infant skin to skin against the mother s chest with support for breastfeeding, is among the best supported low-cost interventions for infants of low birth weight, but mothers must learn it, often while tired and unsure. Recorded video is increasingly used to teach it on postnatal wards. This narrative review asks what published work suggests about the effectiveness of video-assisted teaching on kangaroo mother care among postnatal mothers, and how strong that evidence is. It draws on trials and reviews of kangaroo mother care, studies of barriers, research on video in health education, and learning theory, and it reports no new data. The case for kangaroo mother care itself is strong. The case for video as the way to teach it is plausible but rests mostly on indirect evidence, and in the reading reported here direct studies are few, mostly small, and usually measure knowledge or satisfaction rather than observed practice after discharge. Video is a reasonable component of teaching alongside bedside coaching and follow-up, and claims of effectiveness should be read as claims about knowledge unless practice was observed.