Kangaroo Care and Preemies

Kangaroo care for premature infants has become a common practice in many Neonatal Intensive Care Units around the world.  This type of parent/child bonding involves placing a child on their parent's chest.  The skin-to-skin contact has been shown to regulate baby's body temperature, heart rate and respiration.  According to the March of Dimes, "Kangaroo care helps maintain body warmth, regulate heart and breathing rates, gain weight, spend more time in deep sleep, spend more time being quiet and alert, and less time crying, and better milk production for the mother" (March of Dimes, 2012).

"Kangaroo care was started in 1979, in Bogota, Colombia.  There had been a large number of deaths in preterm babies, and there was lack of appropriate equipment for these infants.  The doctors found that by placing the child on the parents' skin, the infant would excel.  By 1983, UNICEF was recommending the practice be used throughout the world.  By the late 1980s research was proving the benefits of skin-to-skin contact for young infants" (Kangaroo Mother Care, 2012).

Above is a picture of my daughter and I using this bonding technique when she was just 3 days old.  I believe that touch and bonding helped her to be excel in the NICU, and in turn being released at just 4 weeks old.

Resources

Kangaroo Mother Care. (2012).  Where kangaroo mother care started.   Retrieved from http://www.kangaroomothercare.com/beginning-KMC.aspx

March of Dimes. (2012).  Holding your baby close: Kangaroo care.  Retrieved from http://www.marchofdimes.com/baby/inthenicu_kangaroocare.html