Riley's annual Kangaroo-a-thon is officially underway in our hospital's NICUs at the Maternity Tower and the Simon Family Tower. The friendly competition promotes skin-to-skin care for our tiniest patients.
Families and even nurses compete for prizes while encouraging more opportunities for these close snuggles.
"Skin-to-skin care is when the parents take off their shirts, we unwrap the babies, and they lay skin-to-skin against their parents' chests," Mary Jo Macpherson, Quality Improvement Coordinator for Riley's NICUs, said. It's good for bonding between the parents and the baby. It's great for the baby because it helps reduce infection. Studies say it actually helps them go home from the NICU sooner, helps them to bond with their parents."
MacPherson said "kangaroo care" also positively impacts the parents and makes a difference in a mother's breastfeeding journey.
"For parents it's great because it helps bonding with the baby," MacPherson said. "It is especially good for mothers because it helps them to produce breast milk, which is really important in the NICU."
Mylee Stewart just gave birth to a baby boy on May 4. She credits skin-to-skin for increasing her milk supply.
"At first it was not coming in at all and then when we did skin-to-skin it came in right away," Stewart said.
Kangaroo-a-thon continues through May 31. Both parents and nurses have the chance to win prizes by earning tickets each time they either participate in skin-to-skin care or support families and babies.
"This is a special project because it really speaks to how much in the NICU we understand this is difficult for parents to be here, and that they're missing out on the normal interaction that they would have had with their babies at home," MacPherson explained. "We're trying to supplement that with the Kangaroo-a-thon."
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