Kangaroo Babies

Book excerpt: Kangaroo Mother Care was created to help premature and low-birth-weight-infants develop into healthy babies. Once the newborn baby's heart rate and feeding have been stabilised, it remains with its mother who provides, naturally, all the benefits of incubator care; babies are positioned in close skin-to-skin contact with their mother, or even sometimes their father, for twenty-four hours a day. The warm physical contact regulates the baby's body temperature so that the baby can continue to grow, stimulates breastfeeding, gives the baby a wonderful feeling of security and strengthens bonding. The Kangaroo Mother Method is now used in thirty countries around the world, often in the Third World where incubators are in short supply in maternity hospitals, and has saved thousands of babies' lives. In the western world it is been adapted and is used widely alongside incubator care to heal the sense of isolation and helplessness both parents and babies can feel in the tense initial weeks of the baby's life. Providing a history and a beautifully illustrated practical guide to kangaroo mothering, Nathalie Charpak's book tells you all you need to know about an approach that will change the way mothers relate to newborn babies and improve the way hospitals treat premature babies and their parents. Kangaroo Mother Care was created to help low-birth-weight-infants develop into healthy babies. Newborn babies remain with their mothers who supply the benefits of incubator care; babies are bound to their mothers, or other carers, in skin-to-skin contact. The physical contact regulates the babies' body temperature, and provides essential stimulation, as well as initiating bonding. Providing a history and beautifully illustrated practical guide to kangaroo mothering, Nathalie Charpak provides an essential guide to an approach that will change the way mothers relate to newborn babies, and improve the way hospitals treat premature babies.