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Kangaroo mother care (KMC) involves placing the newborn infant into prolonged and continuous skin-to-skin contact with the mother as soon as possible after birth, exclusive breastfeeding, early discharge from the health facility, and supportive follow-up at home. Claimed benefits of KMC as an aid to the clinical mitigation of some detrimental features of prematurity need to be evidence based. This article, the first of two, provides an overview of the impact of prematurity on those features of neonates to which KMC may be directed. Specifically, the mitigation of some cardiorespiratory, neurophysiological, sensory, gastrointestinal, musculoskeletal, renal, metabolic, and immunological impacts are outlined. Relevant neurobehavioral, psychosocial, sociocultural, and economic perspectives are briefly reviewed in the companion article. These two articles provide scientific support for a wider upscaling of KMC education and its cautious use in physiologically stable preterm infants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]