Search Here

Pre-term infants among other things, have difficulty latching on to heir mother's breast when breast feeding. New research published in the October issue of Acta Paediatrica reveals the benefits of unsing technique known as 'Kangaroo Mother Care,' where infants remain attached to the mother, skin to skin, instead of being placed in the incubator.

Not only does this help generate a better bond between mother and infant, leading to better and faster results when breastfeeding, it also has a lasting positive impact on the babies brain development.

Earlier research has shown infants born prior to the 33rd week of pregnancy experienced more cognitive and behavioral problems during childhood and adolescence.

Researchers Cyril Schneider and Réjean Tessier, of the Department of Rehabilitation in the Faculty of Medicine and of the School of Psychology at the Université Laval they compared, at age 15, 18 premature infants kept in incubators, 21 premature infants held in Kangaroo contact for an average of 29 days, and 9 term infants.

They found that brain functions of the adolescent Kangaroo group were comparable to those of the of-term infant group. On the other hand, premature infants placed in incubators significantly deviated from the other two groups 15 years after their birth.

Psychology researcher Réjean Tessier explains that "infants in incubators also receive a lot of stimulation, but often the stimulation is too intense and stressful for the brain capacity of the very premature. The Kangaroo Mother Care reproduces the natural conditions of the intrauterine environment in which the infants would have developed had they not been born premature. These beneficial effects on the brain are in evidence at least until adolescence and perhaps beyond."

"Thanks to Kangaroo Mother Care, infants benefited from nervous system stimulation -- the sound of the parent's heart and the warmth of their body -- during a critical period for the development of neural connections between the cerebral hemispheres. This promoted immediate and future brain development," suggests neurophysiologist Cyril Schneider.