Babies born with low weight have a tendency to lose heat, or become hypothermic, because they have low energy stores, which cannot be spent on generation of heat, says V K Paul, professor and head of the department of paediatrics at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi. Such babies need external interventions to make up for the heat deficit. According to UNICEF, such interventions can reduce neonatal mortality or morbidity by 18 per cent to 42 per cent. Traditionally, these are done in various ways, such as keeping the baby dry and clothed, co-bedding with mother, heating the room and kangaroo mother care (KMC) in which a low birth-weight baby is placed on mother’s or father’s chest to offer maximum skin-to-skin contact.

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