 kangaroo care is a technique practiced on newborn, usually preterm, infants wherein the infant is held, skin-to-skin, with an adult. kangaroo care for pre-term infants may be restricted to a few hours per day, but if they are medically stable that time may be extended. some parents may keep their babies in-arms for many hours per day. kangaroo care, named for the similarity to how certain marsupials carry their young, was initially developed to care for preterm infants in areas where incubators are either unavailable or unreliable. == description == kangaroo care seeks to provide restored closeness of the newborn with mother or father by placing the infant in direct skin-to-skin contact with one of them. this ensures physiological and psychological warmth and bonding. the kangaroo position provides ready access to nourishment. the parent's stable body temperature helps to regulate the neonate's temperature more smoothly than an incubator, and allows for readily accessible breastfeeding.ludington-hoe, s., lewis, t., morgan, k., cong, x., anderson, l., & reese, s. (2006). breast and infant temperatures with twins during shared kangaroo care. journal of ostetrics, gynecologic, and neonatal nursing, 35 (2), 223-231. while this model of infant care is substantially different from the typical western nicu procedures described here, the two are not mutually exclusive, and it is estimated that more than 200 neonatal intensive care units practice kangaroo care today. one recent survey found that 82 percent of neonatal intensive care units use kangaroo care in the united states today. == history == not all areas in the world have resources to provide technical intervention and health care workers for premature and low weight babies. in 1978, due to increasing morbidity and mortality rates in the instituto materno infantil nicu in bogotÃ¡, colombia, dr. edgar rey sanabria, professor of neonatology at department of paediatry - universidad nacional de colombia, introduced a method to alleviate the shortage of caregivers and lack of resources. he suggested that mothers have continuous skin-to-skin contact with their low birth weight babies to keep them warm and to give exclusive breastfeeding as needed. this freed up overcrowded incubator space and care givers. another feature of kangaroo care was early discharge in the kangaroo position despite prematurity. it has proven successful in improving survival rates of premature and low birth weight newborns and in lowering the risks of nosocomial infection, severe illness, and lower respiratory tract disease (conde-agudelo, diaz-rossello, & b
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