RE: prem care

[Sally Westbury]

A little while back I saw a fantastic video from a South African doctor about Kangaroo Mother Care. Now I know that this is not a new concept but really lets think about this.   If the babe is skin to skin 24 hours a day.. not most of the time.. then the baby is having ‘her’ temperature maintained perfectly for her and so can use more energy feeding and still put on weight. This also really helps with breast feeding.   If this were my babe then I would be doing this. Exclusively breast feeding on demand.   So this might be a bit militant for some but is my feeling on this.   I have not so long ago seen a baby born at 34 weeks managed via kangaroo care and he put on 200g in the first 5 days of life… NO WEIGHT LOSS!!! It was really fantastic to see this wonderful experienced mother care for her baby and incredible to see the hysteria in the hospital when she would not put the babe in SCN.   Some food for thought.   In peace and joy Sally Westbury