PREMATURE NEWBORN CARE: KANGAROO CARE
PREMATURE NEWBORN CARE: KANGAROO CARETRANSCRIPTThe practical ways you comfort your baby and promote her development, help hermedically as well as emotionally. When a baby is stressed, she experiences changesin her heart rate and breathing. Less oxygen may make it to her bloodstream. Thisaffects her stability and her brain health, too.One of the best ways parents nurture their baby is with what is called kangaroo care.Much like a baby kangaroo, who slips into his mother’s warm pouch, your early bornbaby comes to rest skin-to-skin on your chest. Just as she did in the womb, here sheis able to take advantage of your body heat, and feel and hear the reassuring rhythmof your heartbeat. The closeness, warmth and smells that a baby senses while skin toskin with a parent will help him to feel at ease and to sleep.Babies tend to fuss less in this position and have fewer episodes of apnea – that is,interrupted breathing. Breathing becomes more regular. Your heart rate and yourbaby’s synchronize and the level of oxygen in her blood goes up – all signs that yourbaby’s brain is getting the stability and calm it needs.“What I find, is that my daughters tend to saturate really well when they’rekangarooing, and they fall asleep and pull their arms in close and they’re just out.And it’s a nice feeling to know that I’m doing something physically to help withtheir development.”Babies aren’t the only ones who respond well to skin-to-skin contact in theNICU. Mothers and fathers do, too.“At first it was really scary for us, because he was very small and there was a lotof machinery attached to him. But once he would get nestled down on your chest,the vent tube went away. Everything went away and you just had, you know, yourson there. And actually, most of the time we would just sleep. But it was some ofthe best sleep I got and hopefully some good sleep for him.”20% gradient mesh“The kangarooing that we’ve done gives us the best feeling in the world. It’sincredible. We just can’t even describe it in words. And it definitely helps her. Shejust seems so calm when we do it, and we notice her weight gain is muchbetterhealthclipson the days after we’ve been here kangarooing. So we know the research is there,healthclipsbut we know it from personal experience.”Many parents say that kangaroo care helped them to realize that there was somethinghealthclipsthey could do for their baby that no one else could.healthclips4% gradient meshThis program is for informational purposes only. Publisher disclaims all guarantees regarding the accuracy, completeness, orsuitability of this video for medical decision making. For all health related issues please contact your healthcare provider.hc_ob_10026_97_en_t00002.pdf healthclips© Milner-Fenwick, Inc.5% gradient mesh
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