Hi,
I'm a mom of a premmie baby. Just wanted to share with other mums the benefits of kangaroo care for premature babies. We shared this with our little one and loved it.
Kangaroo Care allows moms and dads to hold their babies, wearing only diapers, on their bare chest up to several times a day. This skin-to-skin contact has numerous benefits, both emotional and physical, for both the baby and parents. "We mammals have been doing this for eons," says Theresa Kledzik, an infant development nurse specialist at Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs, Colo. "It seems like a natural instinct thing to do."
Healthy Benefits for Baby
Doctors in Bogotá, Colombia developed the technique in 1983 in response to the number of premature babies dying at their hospital. Because the facility had unreliable equipment and power, the doctors decided to see if the babies would do better with their moms. The women carried their babies around all the time on their bare chests – under their shirts, in their bras or in specially-designed pouches (thus the term "kangaroo"). Through Kangaroo Care, the doctors were able to decrease the mortality rate from 70 percent to 30 percent.
After these findings, the world began to take note and do further research on Kangaroo Care. The idea first spread through Europe, and then in 1988, Susan Ludington, currently a professor at the University of Maryland School of Nursing, began doing studies in the you.S. Now hospitals across the country and the world are offering Kangaroo Care, and countless research studies have documented the benefits.
Placing babies on bare skin helps keep them warm, a task that is difficult for premature babies who have not yet developed the layer of fat that full-term babies have. Moms also seem to have an innate way of adjusting their body temperature to meet the baby's needs. For example, if Baby gets too hot, Mom will cool down and vice versa.
Kangaroo Care helps the baby develop a regular heart rate and breathing pattern. It also reduces periods of apnea, when babies stop breathing, and increases oxygen in the blood.
Babies in Kangaroo Care also grow and gain weight more quickly. Studies have found that they go to seep twice as often, get more restful sleep and are more alert, relaxed and calm when they are awake. Kangaroo Care often enables babies to go home from the hospital earlier, saving much wear and tear on parents who may have already spent days or weeks with their babies in the stressful neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
I'm a mom of a premmie baby. Just wanted to share with other mums the benefits of kangaroo care for premature babies. We shared this with our little one and loved it.
Kangaroo Care allows moms and dads to hold their babies, wearing only diapers, on their bare chest up to several times a day. This skin-to-skin contact has numerous benefits, both emotional and physical, for both the baby and parents. "We mammals have been doing this for eons," says Theresa Kledzik, an infant development nurse specialist at Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs, Colo. "It seems like a natural instinct thing to do."
Healthy Benefits for Baby
Doctors in Bogotá, Colombia developed the technique in 1983 in response to the number of premature babies dying at their hospital. Because the facility had unreliable equipment and power, the doctors decided to see if the babies would do better with their moms. The women carried their babies around all the time on their bare chests – under their shirts, in their bras or in specially-designed pouches (thus the term "kangaroo"). Through Kangaroo Care, the doctors were able to decrease the mortality rate from 70 percent to 30 percent.
After these findings, the world began to take note and do further research on Kangaroo Care. The idea first spread through Europe, and then in 1988, Susan Ludington, currently a professor at the University of Maryland School of Nursing, began doing studies in the you.S. Now hospitals across the country and the world are offering Kangaroo Care, and countless research studies have documented the benefits.
Placing babies on bare skin helps keep them warm, a task that is difficult for premature babies who have not yet developed the layer of fat that full-term babies have. Moms also seem to have an innate way of adjusting their body temperature to meet the baby's needs. For example, if Baby gets too hot, Mom will cool down and vice versa.
Kangaroo Care helps the baby develop a regular heart rate and breathing pattern. It also reduces periods of apnea, when babies stop breathing, and increases oxygen in the blood.
Babies in Kangaroo Care also grow and gain weight more quickly. Studies have found that they go to seep twice as often, get more restful sleep and are more alert, relaxed and calm when they are awake. Kangaroo Care often enables babies to go home from the hospital earlier, saving much wear and tear on parents who may have already spent days or weeks with their babies in the stressful neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
