Laerdal LGH CarePlus - Manual (Page 3)

“Can a purpose designed wrap act as a cultural
ambassador or messenger to increase the adoption of KMC
by improving the experience around the therapy?”
A well designed, user focused KMC wrap may accelerate adoption by:
• Increasing Visibility
By being more visible as a stand-out product. It might raise curiosity and trigger conversations
about KMC.
• Changing Perception
Custom purpose of the wrap helps reinforce the therapy message and also raises the status
perception of KMC.
• Creates Desirability
An attractive product combined by peer use may create desirability. The improved user
experience only strengthens and sustains the practise over prolonged period.
This wrap could be one of the many accelerator ideas to drive adoption. A simple, open source
design should not only benefit from encouragement for local production but also improvisations
to match the custom requirements.
Laerdal designer working with health worker and mother to develop the KMC wrap, India
Challenges Today
A lot of time was used in field research to understand the challenges a KMC provider, primarily
the mother in most cases faces to provide the therapy to the newborn. The field time was spent in
India, Tanzania and Malawi, understanding the perspective of health workers as well as mothers.
Even in locations with successful implementation of KMC, the quality of KMC was questionable.
There were separate challenges for continuing KMC in the facility and after discharge within the
community. The user related challenges can be briefly summarised as follows:
1. Duration of stay in KMC wards is often too short due to limited bed capacity. Mothers are often
occupying uncomfortable situations in an overcrowded KMC ward..
2. Most current solutions are home sourced like the Kanga in Africa or the Duppata in India. Both
just long pieces of cloth require an assistant to apply the solution.
3.Mothers cover themselves with lot of layers of the wrap for security which over heats the
mothers. The knot in the back is not convenient for lieing down. These layers of fabric make
frequent breastfeeding or changing for cleaning the baby a tiresome chore.
4. At home the challenges increase due to lack of beds and obligations to domestic duties.
5. Fathers are not too supportive in sharing the task of KMC.
The wrap underwent multiple iterations in its development journey and a lot of mothers and
health providers have helped to fine tune the design to its present form.
Mothers helping each other with the wraps, Malawi