Oxygenation, heart rate and temperature in very low birthweight infants during skin-to-skin contact with their mothers.

Fourteen very low birthweight infants were studied positioned either prone horizontal or skin-to-skin at 60 degree tilt between the mother's breasts. Heart rate, skin temperature and oxygenation by transcutaneous PO2 and pulse oximetry were measured. Nine of the infants had normal lungs when studied.

Skin to skin contact for very low birthweight infants and their mothers.

Separation between mothers and very low birthweight infants is often prolonged with subsequent psychological distress, behaviour problems, and lactation failure. Babies as small as 700 g, who no longer require oxygen, can be safely and enjoyably held naked, except for a nappy, between the mother's breasts for up to four hours a day. We have carried out a randomised trial among babies less than 1500 g.

Myth of the marsupial mother: home care of very low birth weight babies in Bogota, Colombia.

Because of the shortage of equipment and staff and the frequency of cross-infection in hospital, paediatricians at San Juan de Dios Hospital, Bogota, have been sending home babies weighing as little as 700 g, cared for between the mother's breasts in a vertical position and fed only on mother's milk ("kangaroo babies"). Infants as immature as 32 weeks gestation were successfully cared for at home in this way. Mother's milk was supplemented with guava juice and later with soup, but mean time to regain birth weight was 36 days.