Parents with babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and Special Care Nursery (SCN) at Mercy Hospital for Women are currently logging as many hours of skin-to-skin contact or kangaroo care with their little one/s as possible.
The hospital is taking part in Australia’s 3rd annual Kangaroo-a-thon, an event organised by the Miracle Babies Foundation to promote the importance of kangaroo care.
Research shows kangaroo care has widespread benefits for not only premature babies but the mental well-being of their parents too.
“Kangaroo care has shown to improve the survival rate of premature and low birth weight newborns,” NICU Nurse Unit Manager Theresa Arnold explained.
“Kangaroo care is a simple technique which has life changing results; and these results can’t be replicated by any other form of care.”
Staff working in the NICU and SCN always encourage parents to have skin-to-skin contact with their babies when medically safe to do so; but the Kangaroo-a-thon gives parents an added incentive to log as many hours as possible.
Mercy Hospital for Women clocked up an impressive 195.5 hours of kangaroo care during last year’s event and is hoping to do even better this year. The Kangaroo-a-thon started on Monday 15 May (Kangaroo Awareness Day) and runs until Sunday 28 May.
Download full media release ( PDF, 200.5K )
Last reviewed December 27, 2017.
