Kangaroo Care for Premature and Low-weight newborn babies

Have you heard about ‘Kangaroo Care’? It is a technique for premature or low-weight newborns and involves the mother – and father – putting the baby against their chest skin to skin. It is thought to help with warmth, stimulation and breastfeeding. Why not ask your child’s consultant if you can give it a go?

I used ‘Kangaroo Care’ with my first son who was born prematurely. I couldn’t use it for 10 days when he was in an incubator but as soon as he came out I would dress him just in a nappy and put him down my pyjama top between my breasts and I truly believe it helped both of us. It calmed my son very quickly, kept him warm and reassured him. It was also great for me as I felt we had really bonded despite my not being able to hold him whilst he was in the incubator. We were able to make up for lost time. He also started breastfeeding around the time I started using Kangaroo Care too and I wonder if there was a link?

Some evidence has associated Kangaroo Care with earlier release from special care and has shown that parents benefit enormously by feeling more able to look after their baby after discharge.

There are lots of other benefits to ‘Kangaroo Care’ – check out these websites:

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/kangaroocare/kangaroocare.html
http://www.kangaroomothercare.com/
http://www.prematurity.org/baby/kangaroo.html

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