“I feel peace when the baby is safe on my chest.”

BHOLA, Bangladesh- “I feel peace when the baby is safe on my chest,” Sheuli Akter says, gently adjusting the soft purple binder that secures her newborn daughter, Rupa.

Born two weeks ago, Rupa merely weighed 2,000 grams. Classified as having low birthweight, the girl is vulnerable to infections; she is at risk of malnutrition and developmental delays; and worse, the baby is more likely to die within the first 28 days of birth.

UNICEF/Bangladesh/2025/Himu Sheuli looks down Rupa while practicing KMC at home. Holding her baby skin-to-skin helps regulate the infant’s temperature and fosters emotional bonding between the mother and the child.

Seeing the small size of Rupa, Sheuli was afraid at first. But now, holding her baby close to her chest, she feels calm, confident, and close to her infant.

She knows that Rupa is getting better.

Kangaroo Mother Care, a low-cost game changer

Standing beside her is Nazma Akter, a community health worker who has been trained to identify and support the management of stable low-birthweight babies1 at home through a practice called Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC). It is a simple and low-cost method: continuous skin-to-skin contact for at least eight hours a day, combined with exclusive breastfeeding and regular follow-ups.

With a reassuring smile, Nazma explains to Sheuli how to maintain the practice and why every hour matters. She also jots down Rupa’s weight in a mother and child nutrition card, which has replaced multiple paper records and efficiently streamlined her visits.

“I manage two to three cases of low-birthweight babies each month in this area,” Nazma shares. “Because I am from this community, people welcome me into their homes. They trust me.”

Door to door with dedication

Nazma slings her bag over her shoulder and walks a short distance to the next stop: 18-year-old Maria Akter’s house, just five minutes away in the same village.

The sun blazes overhead, but Nazma keeps going. In each house, she checks on the health and nutrition of the mother and the baby, from whether the babies are born healthy to if each mother is aware of recommended feeding practices. If the baby is low birthweight, she immediately introduces KMC.

Bhola, lying in the Ganges Delta, is one of the most remote and hard-to-reach districts in Bangladesh. With limited access to hospitals or specialized care, many low-birthweight newborns are never properly identified or managed in time.

That is why her doorstep visits can mean the difference between life and death for a child. So, despite the overwhelming workload, she knows she must keep going.

After all, she has seen the encouraging results of her hard work: over the past 18 months, by patiently teaching KMC - sometimes facing the community’s skepticism and doubts - she has helped over thirty low-birth-weight babies like Rupa survive and thrive. 

Maria’s baby boy, Safwan, is one of them.

A Young Mother’s Worry

Maria’s house is modest, with brick walls adorned with simple decorations and paper calendars. Inside, two fans whirl in an effort to ease the stifling heat. 

Forty-five days ago, Nazma rushed here the morning after Maria gave birth. She brought a scale, something she did not have before UNICEF’s support, and weighed the baby. Again, just 2,000 grams. Another low-birthweight case.

“I was frightened to see the tiny size of my baby. He was not even crying much. We thought we needed to take him to the hospital for treatment,” Maria remembers. “But Nazma told me not to worry, that we could care for the baby at home. She introduced me to KMC and taught me how to do it.”

At first, Maria felt unsure about the technique. Holding the baby close to her chest for hours at a time was uncomfortable, and she felt shy using the binder. When she needed a break, her parents-in-law stepped in to continue KMC for baby Safwan.

But over time, the practice grew on her.

“I liked it because my son was always close to my chest,” she says with a smile.

UNICEF/Bangladesh/2025/Himu Maria cradles baby Safwan, who sleeps peacefully in her arms.

From fragile to thriving

Thanks to KMC and Nazma’s regular follow-up visits, Safwan’s weight has increased to 3,600 grams within slightly over a month. He is breastfeeding well, active, and no longer at risk.

“Now, when I feed him, I can feel how much heavier he’s become,” Maria shares proudly. “He responds to me, to our family members. He is full of energy.”

Maria has also started Safwan’s immunizations based on Nazma’s recommendation.

“I want my baby to be healthy and educated. I want him to become a good human being,” Maria adds.

A silent crisis

Every year, like Safwan and Rupa, around 700,0002 babies are born with low birthweight in Bangladesh, often a result of early pregnancy and poor maternal nutrition. That is about 1 in every 4 newborns, significantly higher than the global average.

To tackle this crisis, UNICEF and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare have introduced KMC at the community level, training health workers like Nazma to bring this simple, low-cost technique directly to families’ doorsteps.

For only 18 USD, a community health worker can be trained and equipped with resources to save newborn lives, promote breastfeeding, and support healthy brain development, starting in the first hours of life, right in a mother’s arms.

“Before UNICEF’s support, I didn’t have a scale or the training to manage low-birthweight babies,” Nazma emphasizes. “Now I have the tools and knowledge to help mothers immediately.”

Still, the workload is heavy. Nazma visits up to 650 households each month, and the need for care grows every day – UNICEF continues to advocate for an increased number of community health workers to ensure proper care for every mother and child in need.

“If the coordination between the government, NGO, and the private sector improves, if we had more support, we could do so much more and improve the quality of care for every child and mother,” Nazma adds.

From one mother to the next

Back in the village, the ripples of Nazma’s work are visible. Maria, once overwhelmed and afraid, now feels confident enough to guide others.

“If I meet another mother with a low-birthweight baby, I’ll tell her what Nazma taught me,” she says.

And just as Maria once listened to Nazma, Sheuli was encouraged by Maria’s story.

“It helped me believe in Kangaroo Mother Care,” Sheuli says, adjusting her binder once more. Her baby sleeps peacefully against her chest, safe, warm, and growing stronger every day.

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1 Stable low-birthweight babies mean that the babies show no danger signs and breathing difficulties. Only stable LBW newborns can be managed at home; unstable LBW newborns need to be hospitalized.

2 UNICEF & WHO 2023, https://data.unicef.org/topic/nutrition/low-birthweight/ 

UNICEF wishes to express sincere gratitude to Global Affairs Canada, The Power of Nutrition, and their co-investors for their continued support and immense contribution to the nutrition and well-being of mothers and children in Bangladesh.