Kristie McNealy, MD

Tonight, Grey’s Anatomy (Hello, my name is Kristie, and I’m a Grey’s Anatomy addict…) opened with a baby being delivered 10 weeks premature by emergency c-section. Mom had been in an auto accident, and both mom and baby had bleeding on their brains.

When the baby is failing, and her death seems imminent, Karev picks up the baby to honor its mother’s wish that she be held before she dies. Miraculously, the baby girl’s heartrate stabilizes, and Bailey urges Karev to remove his shirt to hold the baby skin-to-skin. With kangaroo care, the baby improves dramatically (and Karev takes some serious ribbing).

Skin-to-skin holding, referred to as kangaroo care, has many benefits to premature newborns. Babies who are in kangaroo care tend to be less prone to apnea and bradycardia, and their oxygen needs stabilize. They maintain their body temperature better, and gain weight more rapidly. They are calmed by the presence of their mother, and maternal-infant bonding is improved. With breast milk easily accessible, kangaroo care can also help facilitate breastfeeding in babies who are able to suckle.

Both mom’s and dad’s benefit from improved bonding with their baby. Participating in kangaroo care makes parents feel more actively involved in meeting their baby’s needs in the NICU. It also gives them crucial time to learn how to assess their baby’s needs, and allows for more teaching moments with the NICU staff. Kangaroo care can even improve a mother’s milk production.

In addition to the benefits of kangaroo care to the parents and baby, kangaroo care benefits hospitals and the healthcare system by shortening hospital stays and saving healthcare dollars.

Unfortunately, many neonatal intensive care units have been slow to adopt kangaroo care, and those that allow parents to kangaroo often under utilize the technique. Sometimes, this happens because nurses are extremely busy, and it takes extra time to get a parent and baby set up to do kangaroo care. I know this happened to us more than a few times when our daughter was in the NICU. Other times it happens because different nurses and NICU staff have different personal criteria for when it is safe for a baby to kangaroo.

While it might seem a little scary at first with a very tiny baby, and although the staff might not always be the biggest advocates, parents in the NICU should take a proactive approach to kangaroo care. While the results on Grey’s were a little over the top, it really is worth any hassle you have to go through to make it happen. I can say that from experience.

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