Hello everyone,

I've received a rather unusual question from Prof George Kent of the 
Uni of Hawaii (specialty: human right to food) who is in 
correspondence with Save the Children USA.  He is advocating with 
this organization for exclusive breastfeeding of newborns in Malawi, 
which ties in with the theme of this year's World Breastfeeding 
Week.  It seems that Save the Children have recently motivated 20 000 
American women to knit little caps for Malawian newborns.  I'm struck 
by the generosity and goodwill that this initiative seems to have 
generated.  But George is asking for research showing that caps help 
to save newborn lives.  Save the Children have directed him to the 
Lancet series on neonatal mortality, but he can't find anything 
specific within those papers which shows that caps specifically 
benefit newborns.  I seem to recall seeing footage in many videos of 
pre-term babies in the US, in little isolettes, naked except for 
diapers and caps.  But in the neonatal units in Zimbabwean hospitals 
the use of caps was unknown. Can anyone let me have any journal 
references which support this practice?

Meanwhile, I've conveyed to George the rationale of keeping mother 
and baby together skin-to-skin to prevent newborn hypothermia, and of 
course to facilitate early exclusive breastfeeding.  But we'd still 
like to know about the caps!

Thanks for any leads.

Pamela Morrison IBCLC
Rustington, England
Co-coordinator WABA TF on Breastfeeding and HIV

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