Abstract
M.Cur.
Kangaroo Care is the practice of a mother holding her baby skin-to-skin in an upright
position between her breasts. Kangaroo Care originated in a Colombian hospital because
there was not enough incubators to nurse all the sick and premature babies in. Incubators
had to be shared with the result that the mortality rate due to infection rised dramatically.
The implementing of Kangaroo Care caused these numbers to fall dramatically.
The primary objective of the study is to determine whether Kangaroo Care in the neonatal
period will have an effect on the weight gain of the preterm infant.
The study was conducted at an academic state hospital which specialises in mother and
child medicine. Parents and babies who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria were
asked to participate in the study. Babies were divided into a control and experimental
group where the control group did not receive Kangaroo Care and the experimental group
received Kangaroo Care.
A quantative, experimental, explanatory design was used to evaluate the effect of
Kangaroo Care on the weight gain of preterm infants.
The results of the study shows that there is no mentionable difference between the weight
gain of the two groups. The positive hypotheses was rejected while the null- hypotheses
was accepted. Although there was not a mentionable difference between the two groups
the study did not show that the experimental group gained weight slower than the control
group.
Although there was not a mentionable difference between the weight gain of the
experimental and control group, parents learned to be more confident in the care of their
babies. Medical staff and nurses also learned a lot about Kangaroo Care and its benefits.
It is recommended that nursing staff should be trained in helping parents with Kangaroo
care and that Kangaroo care be implemented in neonatal units to enhance parent infant
bonding and also to increase the parents self confidence in looking after their preterm
baby.