More and more hospitals around Michigan and across the country are starting to implement what’s called “Kangaroo Care,” skin-to-skin bonding for mothers and their newborn babies.
Dr. Cat Macardle is senior resident in the Dept. of OBGYN at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, Ann Arbor. She explained how skin-to-skin contact between baby and mom does “wonderful things.”
As Macardle said, skin-to-skin contact between mom and baby, about an hour after birth, helps regulate baby’s temperature, glucose, bilirubin and more. But it’s not only baby who benefits – mom does too.
That contact gives mom a large burst of oxytocin, the “feel-good hormone,” Macardle said. It also stops the new mother from bleeding as much. But even more than that, Macardle said skin-to-skin contact helps the new mother and her child bond more effectively.
“We know that their attachment bonding process just works so much better,” Macardle said. “Right up to about a year, we see moms who’ve had skin-to-skin straight after birth do things like touch their children more and caress their babies a little bit more and bring them to their pediatricians more often – which is fascinating.”
Macardle said it is possible for women who have c-sections to partake in kangaroo care too. While it is not known whether the benefits of skin-to-skin contact between babies and dads, partners and grandparents are the same, she says she “can’t imagine they’re detrimental.”
