Skin-to-Skin Care
Kangaroo Care
Did you know that you can make a big difference in your baby’s development? Your presence and touch in the NICU is one of the most important parts of your baby’s care.
Kangaroo care or skin-to-skin care involves direct contact when an infant is placed skin-to-skin on their parent’s bare chest. A mom or dad may gently hold their baby where they can be cuddled and hear comforting sounds of their parent’s heartbeat and voice. Even in the stressful environment of the NICU, parent and child can quietly bond and get to know one another. Kangaroo care is easy to do, inexpensive, and has many benefits for both babies and parents.
How to Perform Kangaroo Care
In order to transfer your baby from their isolette or crib to your chest, you will complete either a sitting or standing transfer with the help of your baby’s nurse, respiratory therapist, and/or provider.
- Watch the Kangaroo Care Standing Transfer video to review what a standing transfer looks like.
- Watch the Kangaroo Care Sitting Transfer video to learn how to transfer your baby from their bed to your chest using a sitting transfer.
What is the PAIRED Initiative?
In 2022 Golisano Children's Hospital joined the PAIRED initiative, which was created to implement family-centered care. A large part of this initiative was focused on improving the rates of skin-to-skin care between babies and parents.
Benefits
Some benefits of Kangaroo Care include:
- Assists with thermoregulation
- Increases immune protection for infant
- Helps to stabilize heart rate, respiratory rate, and blood pressure
- Improves infant’s sleep quality
- Reduces infant’s stress
- Increases breast milk production and improves infant’s readiness to breastfeed
- Promotes parental involvement
More Information/Resources
Here are some key points from a few of the many studies that have demonstrated the benefits of skin-to-skin care.
Impact of Kangaroo Care on Premature Infant Weight Gain
This study found that babies who performed more skin-to-skin care had better growth than babies that did not perform skin-to-skin care.
Read the full study.
The Effects of Kangaroo Mother Care on the Time to Breastfeeding Initiation Among Preterm and LBW Infants: A Meta-analysis of Published Studies
This study found that infants who performed skin-to-skin care regularly breast fed quicker than infants who did not perform skin-to-skin care regularly.
Read the full study.
Understanding Kangaroo Care and its Benefits to Preterm Infants
This article discusses the benefits of skin-to-skin care, including:
- Temperature regulation
- Improved sleep
- Decreased infant mortality
- Decreased infection rates
- Improved growth
- Decreased NICU length of stay
- Improved neurodevelopment
- Improved parent-infant attachment
Kangaroo Mother Care had a Protective Effect on the Volume of Brain Structures in Young Adults Born Preterm
This article states that skin-to-skin care improves brain development, which can have positive effects beyond infancy.
Read the full study.