By Eileen Burke

When I visited the Bottom Hospital in Lilongwe, Malawi in Southern Africa this spring and saw the premature babies in their tiny beds I could almost hear my mother in Allentown, Penn. telling the story of her own premature baby — me. When I was born six weeks premature, I barely weighed four pounds and my father could hold me in the palm of his hand.

In countries like Malawi, most babies like me die in their first day of life. My parents had lost a one-day-old baby the year before, so they prayed I would survive. The reasons that I did — and that 4 million other babies still die worldwide every year before they are one month old — are useful Mothers’ Day reminders that saving children’s lives means caring for mothers first.

Save the Children’s new report on the State of the World’s Mothers points out that the biggest killers of babies — low birth weight, premature delivery, asphyxia, and pneumonia and other infections — are preventable and treatable.

In contrast to most mothers in Malawi, my mother had regular checkups during her pregnancy. Her doctor made sure she ate properly. He delivered me in a hospital, where trained health staff was on hand to handle the complications of my premature birth. I spent the first month of my life in an incubator and our pediatrician made home visits to check on my progress.

In Malawi, most deliver at home on a dirt floor without the assistance of anyone trained to handle a complication. Add to this the threat of malaria, which is prevalent in Malawi and it often sends pregnant women into premature labor.

Nothing like the hospital I was born in here in the United States is anywhere near the hospitals I saw in Malawi. No cars or ambulances are available to take mother and baby to a distant hospital, and even if they do get there, very few incubators are available. The few that are often don’t work.

Most newborn deaths could be prevented if mothers and babies were given access to simple life-saving measures: family planning, tetanus vaccines for pregnant women, a skilled attendant at birth, prompt treatment of newborn infections and education for mothers about the importance of breastfeeding and necessary care for newborns.

One of these life-saving approaches is called “kangaroo mother care.” Named for the way kangaroos snuggle their babies close in belly pouches, the technique is opening a new chapter for mothers and babies in Malawi. It teaches mothers to keep their premature and underweight babies close to their bodies, chest-to-chest and skin-to-skin. This keeps the infants warm and lets them breastfeed at will so they gain weight and strength.

Victoria Kaunda, the nurse who heads the “kangaroo mother care” center at Bottom Hospital, has helped save hundreds of babies’ lives in the two years since Save the Children launched the program in partnership with the government of Malawi. She told me that without the center, “our job would be difficult because most of the babies would have been dying. But, now we have been saving them.”

When a baby has gained enough weight, baby and mom are discharged and return to their communities to continue kangaroo care at home. Mothers are asked to come back to the hospital a few times in the next weeks for checkups on their babies’ progress, but many also stop by months later to show their healthy children to Victoria and tell her, “Here is your baby!”

That is how I met Veronica and her daughter Nora, now 10 months old. Nora was born 10 weeks premature and barely weighed three pounds — even smaller than I was. But in just three days of “kangaroo mother care,” Nora had gained weight, and she and her mom were soon discharged from the hospital. Veronica now promotes “kangaroo mother care” to other moms.

Nora’s story of survival could become universal if more funds were spent on providing services like this in the poor countries where they are lacking. On Mother’s Day, the best present American leaders could give moms worldwide is support for increased international foreign assistance for critical health programs. Then maybe all mothers’ stories would end happily, just like my mom’s did.