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Kangaroo Care
Kangaroo care is a way of holding a preterm or full term infant so that there is skin-to-skin contact be tween the infant and the person holding it. The baby, wearing only a diaper, is held against the parent’s bare chest. Kangaroo care for preterm infants is typi cally practiced for two to three hours per day over an extended time period in early infancy. With babies who are medically stable, there is no maximum dura tion for kangaroo care. Some parents may keep their babies in-arms for many hours per day.
The label kangaroo care was chosen to describe this strategy because the method is similar to how a kangaroo is carried by its mother. It is estimated that
more than 200 neonatal intensive care units practice kangaroo care today compared to less than 70 in the early 1990s. One recent survey found that 82 percent of neonatal intensive care units use kangaroo care in the United States today.
Researchers have found that the close physical contact with the parent can help to stabilize the pre term infant’s heartbeat, temperature, and breathing. Preterm infants often have difficulty coordinating their breathing and heart rate. Researchers also have found that mothers who use kangaroo care often have more success with breastfeeding and improve their milk supply. Further, researchers have found that preterm infants who experience kangaroo care have longer periods of sleep, gain more weight, de crease their crying, have longer periods of alertness,
have more success with breastfeeding and improve their milk supply. Further, researchers have found that preterm infants who experience kangaroo care have longer periods of sleep, gain more weight, de crease their crying, have longer periods of alertness, and earlier hospital discharge.
Kangaroo Care (also Kangaroo Maternal [Moth er] Care or Skin-to-Skin Contact and Breastfeeding) is a method used to restore the unique mother-infant bond following the sudden separation during the birth experience particularly in premature births. It
consists of skin-to-skin contact, exclusive breastfeed ing, and support for the mother-infant pair (Kirsten, Bergman, & Hann, 2001).
