TAMPA, Fla. — These local parents celebrated International Kangaroo Awareness Day at the NICU at St. Joseph's Women's Hospital.
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"This global event encourages the practice of kangaroo mother care, which provides continuous skin-to-skin contact between mother or father and baby," the hospital said.
Skin-to-skin contact is important for all babies, but especially so for babies in the NICU.
The benefits include:
• Decreased incidence and severity of infections
• Increased weight gain
• Less irritability
• Improved parent-infant attachment
• Increased maternal milk volume
• Longer duration of breastfeeding
• Improved sleep
