Windsor Regional Hospital is promoting skin-to-skin care for infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit by participating in its first Kangaroo Care-a-thon.
Research shows placing a baby on its parent's bare chest helps to regulate body temperature, stabilize vital signs and creates a bond between the new family.
"By allowing them to do the skin-to-skin, or putting their baby on their chest, that's the natural response. Baby responds to the mom or to the father because that's where they naturally belong, that's like home to them. So it just sort of normalizes the experience and increases the attachment and bond," says Clinical practitioner in the NICU Heather Ryan.
She says skin-to-skin care is nothing new but they wanted to participate in the fun event to show the importance of it.
"It forces us to raise the bar, to increase the number of hours that our parents are holding and really to promote the message. It causes us to stretch what our typical norms would be in the unit and really gets the nurses to encourage the parents to get those babies out and support them and hold the babies," says Ryan.
Mom Kortney Mcvitte holds three-week old twins Savannah and Jackson Smith skin-to-skin in the Windsor Regional Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, May 3, 2016. (Photo by Maureen Revait)
Parents in the NICU are logging the time spent doing kangaroo care with their infants as part of the international NICU challenge.
Mom Kortney Mcvitte gave birth to twins Savannah and Jackson Smith three weeks ago and has witnessed the benefits of the time spent with her infants skin-to-skin.
"It just helps us to feel more involved in their care. It helps us to see that they're growing and they're developing and everything. So it's been nice to be a part of it, be a part of their growth and development, says Mcvitte.