Kangaroo mother care in hospitals

Is Kangaroo mother care standard practice in all hospitals?

Fortunately, many private and public hospitals recommend Kangaroo mother care  (KMC) as the most beneficial way to encourage low birth weight babies to grow and develop, and as a way to allow parents to love and contribute to the care of their baby while it is in neonatal intensive care. “I’ve noticed how restful the babies are while they’re getting KMC and how KMC helps the mother to produce more breast milk, one of the key factors helping these babies to progress,” says Sister Sue Harvey, manager of NICU at Netcare Linkwood Hospital in Linksfield, Johannesburg.

According to Dr Nils Bergman, who made KMC official policy for premature babies in government hospitals in the Western Cape, babies in public hospitals who get constant skin-to-skin contact for most of the time grow very well.  “I always advise the moms I see in government hospitals to keep their babies in skin-to-skin contact on their chests until the babies reach 2,5kg, the desired weight at which a mom can cease doing KMC.”

There’s also no time limit on how long parents can do KMC and Dr Bergman believes even full term babies should experience it until the baby makes it clear she doesn’t need it anymore – usually within two to six weeks after birth for a full-term infant.

However, all neonatal ICUs implement KMC slightly differently in order to fit in with the unit’s policies and programmes and Sister Sue stresses that in her unit nurses encourage moms to handle their babies from early on and teach them to read their babies’ cues as to when enough is enough.

Although a key element for successful KMC is support from family members and nurses, Sister Sue emphasises that it’s best not to push parents when it comes to doing KMC. “Our policy is to give them as much guidance as possible and hope they choose the KMC route, however, if they don’t, we never want a mom to feel guilty or inadequate about not choosing it.”

KMC is a positive and constructive way for parents to help and care for their premature babies. It benefits parents because they bond with their babies, and is critically important for premature babies because they get skin-on-skin contact – important for maintaining their health and bodily functions, and for feeding, soothing and bonding with their parents.

By Ruth Rehbock

Kangaroo mother care: It worked for me

kangaroo mother care, bonding, development, premature/preemie, newborn, birth, baby, Ruth Rehbock