PEDIATRICS: Kangaroo mother care for preterm infants in neonatal intensive care units

To improve the NICU experience for mothers and promote the health of preterm infants, social supports, such as improved maternity leave policies and reliable hospital access through child care, accommodation, and transportation supports are required, even for parents with insurance coverage.”

This is a small study based on interviews with 20 mothers who gave birth to preterm infants in 2016 at Tufts Medical Center (Boston).  The objective was to evaluate how these mothers of infants in the neonatal intensive care unit viewed the practice of kangaroo mother care – which involves skin-to-skin contact and frequent breast feeding.  Barriers to use of this practice are explored.

Source: Lewis, T.P., Andrews, K.G., Shenberger, E., and others. (2019). Caregiving can be costly: A qualitative study of barriers and facilitators to conducting kangaroo mother care in a US tertiary hospital neonatal intensive care unit. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, 19:227. Click here for free full text:     https://bmcpregnancychildbirth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12884-019-2363-y#Abs1  Posted by AHA Resource Center (312) 422-2050 rc@aha.org