Even when you are in your twenties, you can enjoy the benefits of skin-to-skin contact that you had when you were born with mum and dad. This was underlined by the experts of the Italian Society of Neonatology (Sin), in view of the World Day of Kangaroo Care (Kc) which is celebrated on Sunday 15 May and which Sin is promoting today with a free online event (https://bit.ly/ 3yhrRDH to register), organized together with Vivere Onlus. The appointment is from 5 pm with the president Sin, Luigi Orfeo; the secretary of the Sin neonatal Care study group, Paola Cavicchioli; Martina Bruscagnin and Monica Ceccatelli of Vivere Onlus, and other specialists.
“Kangaroo care, essential for the correct development of premature babies, represents a real therapy that, compatibly with the clinical conditions of mother and baby, must be implemented right away – recommends Cavicchioli – Skin-to-skin contact, in fact, it facilitates the adaptation and stabilization of the baby at birth, reduces the response to procedural pain, helps the thermoregulation of the newborn, improves oxygenation, heart rate variability and stabilizes respiratory activity. reduce stress in the newborn and promote the organization of sleep-wake states, and also has neuroprotective effects, of social and behavioral benefit, found up to 20 years after birth “. Not to mention that the Kc works as a ‘springboard’ towards breastfeeding, thanks to an early approach to the breast, increasing this important practice even after discharge and in the following months, highlights Sin.
According to experts, Kc represents “an important tool for the newborn, to overcome the separation from the mother, and for parents who acquire more confidence and self-esteem”. The practice is recommended by the World Health Organization as it can guarantee numerous short- and long-term benefits to the baby and his family. Therefore Sin recalls “the extreme importance of shared protocols for Kc within the birth points” and “the need for regularly repeated refresher courses for all health professionals”.
The Sin Study Group on Neonatal Care – the scientific society explains in a note – recently conducted a survey among the Italian Neonatal Intensive Care (NICU). The analysis of the collected data allowed the realization, in collaboration with a multidisciplinary panel made up of doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and representatives of the National Coordination of Parents’ Associations, of specific national indications on Kangaroo Care, aimed at the care of all hospitalized newborns. in Neonatology and Tin and available to all operators.
However, the Sin notes how, “due to the Covid-19 health emergency, many Italian hospitals have implemented care routines hindering access to neonatal intensive care units and therefore also the parent-child relationship and Kc”. And “unfortunately, despite the epidemic situation has changed, in some structures there are still limitations today”.
For this “my personal appeal, as neonatologist and president Sin – says Orfeo – goes to the medical managers of the maternal-infant area and then to the health directors: it is a priority to review the current procedures within many departments, re-establishing the presence of parents 24 hours a day and all those practices aimed at facilitating the relationship of the mother-father-newborn triad, such as skin to skin, direct attachment to the breast and rooming-in. We must not forget that parents are an integral part of caring for children. premature babies and their contribution is therefore necessary for the psycho-physical well-being of the newborn “.
