BONDING & KANGAROO CARE

Now is a good time to finally sever the apron strings (or cut the umbilical cord) with your children. They are parents now and have to make their own decisions. It may be hard but you now need to back off. Let them do it their way. You had your go, now it’s their turn.

Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) is the brainchild of Colombian pediatrician Edgar Rey, who introduced it to the Instituto Materno Infantil in 1978. It was an idea born out of desperation. The institute served the city’s poorest—those who lived crammed in the rickety, makeshift dwellings in the foothills of the surrounding mountains. At the time this was the biggest neonatal unit in all of Colombia, responsible for delivering 30,000 babies a year. Overcrowding was so bad that three babies would have to share an incubator at a time and the rate of cross-infection was high. Death rates were spiraling and so too was the level of abandonment as young, impoverished mothers, who never even got to touch their babies, found it easier just to take off.

You might have heard that skin-to-skin contact—also called kangaroo care—has plenty of benefits for both a mother and her baby. Indeed, it's been associated with improved mental development, healthy weight, easier breastfeeding, and more. Read on to learn more about kangaroo care, and why you should consider the bonding method with your premature or full-term infant.