Kangaroo Care has recently become a rather popular topic abount new mother and hospitals alike, but what is it exactly?
Kangaroo Care was named after marsupials and how they take care of their young. When a kangaroo is born, they stay hidden in a pouch inside of their mother until they are big enough to leave. When applying this to humans, Kangaroo Care is a technique new mothers use, especially with preterm infants.
It has been proven helpful to place the new infant on the mother’s bare chest so that the infant can pace his or her heartbeats with their mother’s heartbeats. This helps calm the infant’s heartbeat right after birth, since it can be such a stressful experience. When it comes to preterm infants, their hearts may not be completely developed and by laying them on their mother’s chest, it can assist the infants in growing a strong beating heart.
Kangaroo Care can also assist in regulating the infant’s body temperature. By laying the infant on the warmest parts of the human body and then covering the infant and the mother’s upper chest with a small blanket, the infant will match their body temperature to that of their mother’s. This can be helpful in instances where the birth had complications and the baby was put in a stressful environment.
Another reason Kangaroo Care is helpful is that the infant can smell his or her mother as soon as possible. This will increase their chance to breastfeed. The mother’s areolas are covered in small glands called the Apocrine Sweat Gland. The closer the infant is to the glands, the easier they will be able to smell their mother. The more able they are to smell their mother, the more likely they are to try to breastfeed!
While Kangaroo Care is a great practice for mothers; fathers, support partners, grandmothers and siblings can also be involved in Kangaroo Care. While only the mother will be able to breastfeed the infant, anyone can regulate an infant’s body temperature or help normalize a heartbeat. Kangaroo Care is most important for the fact that it helps mommy or daddy connect with the infant. Kangaroo Care has been shown to help new fathers connect with their infant in a way that they might not have been able to do before.
Kangaroo Care is a very important technique that can be helpful not only to preterm infants, but mothers, fathers, siblings, and any infant that gets to experience it.
-Kelsey Munn
University of Northern Colorado, Dietetic Student