Kangaroo care

FOR parents, especially those with premature or smaller children with medical complications, providing nurturing support and love is sometimes difficult, especially when the children are hospitalised.

But since the nurturing presence of parents is very beneficial to the healing and development process, paediatrician Dr Anona Griffith said in the past five decades or so they have been able to contribute to their children’s health through the kangaroo care technique.

“Kangaroo care is a technique of care which involves skin-to-skin contact between newborns and caregivers. It mimics the carriage of an infant kangaroo inside its mother’s pouch, with baby dressed only in diapers snuggling in the bare bosom or chest of his/her parents,” Dr Griffith explained.

First highlighted in Colombia, the practice was promoted in the 1970s in an attempt to reduce the death rate of premature infants which was as high as 70 per cent. The survival rate improved significantly.

Dr Griffith said subsequent to these observations, many studies have been done that have chronicled the benefits of kangaroo care.

“The practice has been so successful that its use is no longer limited to premature infants, but to full-term babies as well. It can be used for infants in neonatal intensive care units who are able to be nursed in such a manner. It has also been recommended as part of post-discharge care,” Dr Griffith said.

She noted that the technique ideally encourages minimal separation between infant and caregiver; however, in most settings, this is not feasible. As such, experts have instead proposed a more achievable guideline which proposes a minimum recommended period of contact of 10 minutes daily.

Dr Griffith noted that there are benefits to be had by both the caregiver and infant from this technique. These include:

•Stabilisation of vital functions such as rate and pattern of breathing, heart rate and body temperature. This is important, as pre-term and growth-restricted babies have problems with maintaining their body temperatures.

•Improvement in the measured amount of oxygen delivered to organs and tissues.

•Calmer, less anxious infants, as bonding is encouraged and promoted.

•Improvement in sleep. These babies have longer uninterrupted sleep times.

•Better breastfeeding with concurrent rapid weight gain. Exclusive breastfeeding is promoted as one of the tenets of kangaroo care.

• Reduced length of hospital stay.

Dr Griffith said when holistically analysed, these benefits also contribute to brain development in infants, while allowing mothers or caregivers, especially those with hospitalised babies, to participate actively in the care of their newborns.

“This technique also decreases a sense of helplessness that sometimes affects parents of sick babies, improves their self-confidence as caregivers, and improves breast milk production,” Dr Griffith advised.

She noted, however, that some parents — for reasons outside of their immediate control — are unable to provide their babies with kangaroo care.

“Challenges to the provision of kangaroo care include the cases of critically ill newborns, maternal ill health, caesarean section delivery, inadequate or inappropriate setting, lack of space in the neonatal unit, as well as inadequate staffing and support at health facilities,” Dr Griffith said.