Two-thousand toy kangaroos are being distributed to the parents of babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the Betty H. Cameron Women’s and Children’s Hospital as part of an effort to teach the importance of “kangaroo care” or skin-to-skin contact between caregivers and premature babies.
The hospital — part of the New Hanover Regional Medical Center — is holding it’s 8th Kangaroo-a-thon through June 30. The event stresses the benefits of holding premature and medically fragile infants against the bare chest of a parent or other caregiver. Such skin-to-skin contact can help to regulate an infant’s heart rate, improve bonding and increase a mother’s breast milk production, among other benefits.
