A Guiding Hand for Families in NICU and Special Care Nurseries - Digital - Book - Page 48
Your baby and you
Kangaroo Care
Kangaroo Care originated in
Bogota, Columbia in 1983.
Neonatologists Edgar Rey and
Hector Martinez developed the
‘Kangaroo Mother Care’ program
to help babies where there was
overcrowding and not enough
equipment like incubators (that are
readily available in Australia) for
babies in the NICU. They found by
placing the baby dressed only in
their nappy and face to face on their
parent’s chest, the parent became
the heater or warmer for the baby,
performing the job of the incubator.
Kangaroo Care or ‘skin-to-skin’ is beneficial for babies in the NICU or SCN
regardless of their location in the world. It helps babies to gain weight,
reduces their heart rate, stabilises breathing and helps them sleep better.
How do you ‘do’ Kangaroo Care?
Kangaroo Care is a method of skin-to-skin contact to promote parent
and infant bonding when the baby is premature or sick. A parent holds
their infant on a bare breast or chest, similar to a kangaroo carrying their
young. Through contact with their parent’s skin, the baby is kept warm and
experiences a close connection to the parents. Kangaroo Care can also
benefit older premature babies and full-term babies.
Why is it important?
Kangaroo Care is an intervention in the NICU or SCN that is considered to
be the closest to the experience babies have in utero during pregnancy.
Kangaroo Care has shown many benefits to babies and parents including
promoting parent-infant bonding, breastfeeding, calming and relaxing
benefits to baby and an early discharge for premature infants.
There are several more potential benefits of Kangaroo Care such as:
• More stable heart rate (no bradycardia)
• More regular breathing (a 75 percent decrease in apnoeic episodes)
Life’s Little Treasures Foundation | Supporting Families of Premature & Sick Babies
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