The evidence exists but quality delivery does not.
First Embrace works with government hospitals and institutions to affordably close delivery gaps and make Kangaroo Care routine.
The problem
The World Health Organization recommends Kangaroo Care for every premature and underweight newborn.
Nigerian national policy (2017) aims for 95% coverage by 2030.
18%
of vulnerable newborns do not survivethe neonatal period in Nigeria.
Our own estimate, replicating GiveWell’s methodology.
A national estimate, covering newborns born in hospitals and in the community, where mortality is likely higher.
The reasons why can be solved affordably.
What is Kangaroo Care?
- 1Skin to skin care
- 2Exclusive breastfeeding
- 3Danger-sign education
When newborns die, and how many stay with us
Around 60% of newborn deaths happen in the first three days of life.
Systematic review of 34 studies.
77% of our newborns stay with us through them.
568 of 737 newborns whose stay has ended reached day 3 or beyond.
How do we overcome the barriers?
GiveWell and our analysis of implementation literature identify prevalent barriers limiting Kangaroo Care’s scale. Our model is designed to address each one. To our knowledge we are the only organisation supporting the government to practically scale Kangaroo Care in Kano.
We equip existing wards to WHO standards and train dedicated nursing teams to run them in public hospitals.
Nurses log every Kangaroo Care session in a real-time monitoring system, and the ward is run off what it shows.
We work with government to make this the standard of care the health system delivers.
The path to scale
Shifting from incubators (conventional care) to Kangaroo Care may cost a health system very little.
An incubator
Mains power, servicing and a biomedical technician. It warms one newborn at a time, and it keeps that newborn away from their mother.
Kangaroo Care
A mother, a wrap and a trained nurse. It works through a power cut, the warmth comes from the mother, and one mother can hold twins or triplets at once.
We think that switch can be made for minimal marginal cost, and the emerging economic evidence supports it.
So a government may be able to move small and preterm newborns out of incubators and onto their mothers for close to what it already spends, with the better outcomes coming as part of the switch rather than instead of it. Our work is to help them make it.
Results · Kano State, since February 2026
Starting in Kano. Building for scale.
Two public hospitals in Kano State, where our nursing teams are learning what it takes to deliver Kangaroo Care consistently on a public ward.
We are building it with the Kano State Ministry of Health, to be run by the health system itself.
Supported by
Why us
Built for this challenge. Led by those closest to it.
We unite global clinical experience with local systems expertise.
Partners
Advised by experts from
Support
$300 gives a newborn Kangaroo Care from birth to home.
$3,000 is our own cost-effectiveness estimate for this program; the $3,500 on the home page is GiveWell’s for Kangaroo Care generally. Predictable funding lowers equipment costs through bulk procurement, so every dollar goes further. Donations in particular countries are tax deductible: contact us for information.
- $60
- Kangaroo Care for a vulnerable newborn on the day when they are most likely to not survive.
- $300
- Kangaroo Care from birth to home for one newborn.
- $2,000
- Kangaroo Care for a whole ward of vulnerable newborns for a week.
- $3,000
- A newborn life saved.
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