We found a perfect way to celebrate Valentine’s Day … by spending the day reuniting parents and babies with kangaroo care!
Kangaroo care, also known as skin-to-skin care, is when a baby is held by a parent on her/his bare chest. Scientists have all kinds of great words to describe what kangaroo care does for a baby (and a parent), but I will use a non-medical term. It’s magic!
When babies are held, they self-regulate better, grow better, sleep better, and their brains develop. When parents hold babies, their stress levels go down, they feel more confident as parents, and moms make more milk! And these are just a few of the proven benefits.
As someone who has spent many hours holding her babies kangaroo style, I can say there’s nothing like it. That’s why I was so pleased and proud in our unit today when I saw so many staff members and parents working together to bring babies out for these healing cuddles.
I should also mention that today wasn’t just a Valentine celebration; it was also the first day of our two week Kangaroo-a-thon. Inspired by similar events at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital and St Barnabas Medical Centre, our Breastfeeding Resource Nurse put together an amazing program to encourage as much skin-to-skin care as possible. I could see the impact of the program this afternoon when I stepped in the unit to take some Valentine portraits of families; the windows were already well-populated by paper kangaroos, each one marking a separate skin-to-skin session. More to the point, I saw all the parents with their babies on their chests and smiles on their faces!
So between now and February 28, I’ll be updating this blog regularly to let you know how our kangaroo-a-thon is going, to share some family stories with you, and to update you on what we’re learning. If you have any ideas, stories or comments to share, please leave them in the comments.
Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!
