Some mothers choose to create a natural incubator for their newborns by holding their child skin-to-skin soon after birth, a technique called kangaroo care.
Findings show that kangaroo care may improve breast-milk production and increase maternal responsiveness, according to a presentation at the Baltimore AWHONN convention on Monday.
“The whole idea with breastfeeding [babies] within the first 24 hours ? is a big deal,” said professor Amy Johnson.
Johnson conducted a four-day study of 36 breastfeeding mothers, asking them to hold their newborn for at least one hour and then express their milk within the following half-hour.
“After holding,” concluded Johnson, “they pumped milk that was higher in calorie, larger in volume.”
“The average was 28 percent more” breast milk, according to Johnson?s study.
Early kangaroo holding began in early 1983 at a hospital in Bogota, Col., where there was a high mortality rate for premature infants. After mothers were encouraged to hold their newborns for a few hours daily, the mortality rate fell from 70 percent to 30 percent, according to an article by Krisanne Larimer, author of “Kangarooing Our Little Miracles.”
Kangaroo care “stabilizes [babies?] heart rate, their respiration, and it helps ? maintain a good oxygen saturation,” said Ruth Brown, a nurse practitioner at Sinai Hospital. Oxygen saturation refers to oxygen distributed throughout the body to help the organs.
“We find that kangaroo care helps to keep the oxygen stable, and also ? to help with the mother?s milk supply,” said Brown. “The No. 1 thing is the bonding with the parents. It?s something the parents can do that no one else can do.”
