Maidy Luhanga weighed not more than a 2-pound bag of sugar when she arrived in this world: she could fit in the palm of a hand. Born six weeks premature on March 11, 2009, Maidy was lucky that her HIV-positive mother who lives in a remote village in northern Malawi gave birth in Rumphi District Hospital in the rural town of the same name.

Baby Maidy was immediately whisked to a unit specializing in Kangaroo Mother Care, a program designed to use a mother’s body warmth and skin-to-skin contact to nurture and sustain low-birth weight babies.

At 1.98 pounds Maidy was certainly a candidate for the program. And her mother, Ms. Ngwira, was ready to provide it. As taught by the hospital staff, Maidy’s mom began a regiment of swaddling the baby to her chest and maintaining skin-to-skin contact with the infant. A feeding tube was placed in her nose because Maidy was too small to nurse. But once Maidy gained some strength, and her mother began a daily routine of cup and breast feedings, Maidy slowly began to gain weight.

After six weeks of steadily following the Kangaroo Mother routine, Maidy’s mom could proudly show the progress her little girl had made – Maidy was breastfeeding well and now weighed 3.3 pounds. She was healthy and ready to go home; her mother wrapped her in the traditional chitenje cloth.

But Maidy wasn’t yet finished with Kangaroo Mother Care. Critical to maintaining Maidy’s progress were follow-up visits to her home by health care providers. At the end of April, Maidy’s mom received counseling – as she had during her pregnancy because of her HIV-status -- and received safe breast-feeding tips. She was told to only breast feed Maidy who then weighed 3.4 pounds.

Her mom had the support of another female member of the household so the family could maintain the round-the-clock Kangaroo care of baby Maidy.

Month by month, Maidy put on more weight and her body temperature climbed to normal levels. In a routine follow up visit to the hospital in June of that year, Maidy weighed in at 7.7 pounds – she was breast feeding like a veteran.

Today, she is a healthy 1-year-old, walking, babbling and playing.