page_title: Kangaroo care
section_title: Pain control
hierarchical_section_title: Kangaroo care / Benefits / Pain control
caption_attribution_description: English: It is common and good to have skin to skin contact with the newborn baby to have the baby gain weight and also to improve the Mother's feed
context_page_description: Kangaroo care or kangaroo mother care, sometimes called skin-to-skin contact, is a technique of newborn care where babies are kept chest-to-chest and skin-to-skin with a parent, typically their mother. It is most commonly used for low birth-weight preterm babies, who are more likely to suffer from hypothermia, while admitted to a neonatal unit to keep the baby warm and support early breastfeeding.
  Kangaroo care, named for the similarity to how certain marsupials carry their young, was initially developed in the 1970s to care for preterm infants in countries where incubators were either unavailable or unreliable. There is evidence that it is effective in reducing both infant mortality and the risk of hospital-acquired infection, and increasing rates of breastfeeding and weight gain.
  Skin-to-skin care is also used to describe the technique of placing full-term newborns very soon after birth on the bare chest of their mother or father. This also improves rates of breastfeeding and can lead to improved stability of the heart and breathing rate of the baby.
context_section_description: Skin-to-skin contact is effective in reducing pain in infants during painful procedures. There appears to be no difference between mothers and others who provide skin-to-skin contact during medical treatments.
caption: A Mother providing Kangaroo care to a preterm baby
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