'Kangaroo cuddles' can help premature babies thrive: study

Premature babies given skin-to-skin contact and nourishment through breastfeeding are better behaved, have larger brains, higher paychecks, more protective and nurturing families in later life than those placed in incubators, researchers claim.
Such children receiving Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) - warmth and nourishment through breastfeeding and continuous skin-to-skin contact - are also less prone to aggressive, impulsive and hyperactive behaviour, said researchers from the Kangaroo Foundation in Colombia.
The children are more likely to have survived into their 20s and have bigger brains, they said.
Premature and low birth weight infants generally require extra care to avoid illness and death from secondary, preventable complications such as hypothermia and infection.

This is a particular problem in developing countries, where incubators and similar technologies are often scarce, over-crowded or unreliable, as well as costly.
A trained KMC parent or caregiver becomes a child's incubator and its main source of food and stimulation.

The technique involves continuous skin-to-skin contact between caregiver and infant, with the baby nested in a "kangaroo" position on the caregiver's chest as soon as possible after birth. The technique is accompanied by exclusive breastfeeding.
"This study indicates that KMC has significant, long-lasting social and behavioural protective effects 20 years after the intervention," said lead researcher Nathalie Charpak from the Kangaroo Foundation.

The technique's early impact was still present 20 years later for those who started life as the most fragile individuals, she said.
Families trained in KMC were more likely to remain together and to be more protective and nurturing, reflected in their children's lower school absenteeism, ability to express feelings, and reduced hyperactivity, aggressiveness and antisocial conduct as young adults.
"The study shows that KMC gives premature and low birth weight babies a better chance of thriving. It saves brains and makes premature and low birth weight babies healthier and wealthier," said Peter Singer from Grand Challenges in Canada.
The research compared 18 to 20 year olds who, as premature and low birth weight infants, had been randomised at birth to receive either KMC or traditional incubator care until they could maintain their own body temperature.

During that initial randomised control trial in 1993-96, researchers documented the short and mid-term benefits of KMC training on the infant's survival, brain development, breastfeeding and the quality of mother-infant bonding.
In 2012-2014, 264 of the original participants who weighed less than 1800 grammes at birth were re-enrolled (61 per cent of infants that qualified).
KMC also offered significant protection against early death. The mortality rate in the control group (7.7 per cent) was more than double that of the KMC group (3.5 per cent).
The study was published in the journal Pediatrics.