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Surrey’s new kangaroo care wraps ‘most comforting’ for premature babies

Surrey mom says hospital program ‘positive experience amidst all the kind of negativity’
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Nisha MacNeil with her baby, Jack, who was born premature at 26 weeks and three days is now 39 weeks. MacNeil has started using the kangaroo care wrap which makes skin-to-skin contact between premature babies and their parents easier. (Photo: Lauren Collins)

In a time that can be new and difficult for any parent, especially those of a premature baby, Nisha MacNeil, has found help from a B.C.-wide program from the provincial government.

Surrey Memorial Hospital began handing out kangaroo care wraps, which help with skin-to-skin contact between premature babies and parents, in April, with the help of funding from the Ministry of Children and Family Development. The ministry announced funding for the program in November of 2017.

RELATED: Premature baby program to expand across B.C., Nov. 15, 2017

There are 14 neonatal intensive care units in the province taking part in the program. Royal Columbian and Surrey Memorial hospitals are the only two taking part in the initiative in the Fraser Health region.

Since introducing the wraps at SMH, staff have handed out more than 50 kangaroo care wraps so far.

MacNeil, who gave birth to baby Jack at 26 weeks and three days, has been at Surrey Memorial since before the wraps were introduced at the hospital. MacNeil, who lives in South Surrey, said that since being introduced to the wrap, she’s noticed the ease of it, compared to the skin-to-skin contact before.

“It was so much easier getting into a proper position for skin-on-skin with him, and then just have my arms free so that I can hold him like I want. Before, it was more awkward. My arms would get more tired, but now I can cradle his head or hold his bottom, but if I need to pick up my water or something, then I can easily do that as well.”

MacNeil said that as soon as Jack, who is now at 39 weeks, is in the wrap, “he’s just so happy.”

“For him, I think it’s calming. It immediately puts him in a restful state. For me, it’s definitely a bonding experience. He came into the world fairly traumatically, and so to be able to do this with him and to be able to hold him in a way that I would be inside me still is really comforting for me as well.”

Deb McLaren, a lactation consultant, said skin-to-skin contact is “taking the baby right down to just a diaper and placing them against the parent’s bare chest, so that as much of the baby’s surface is in contact with the parent.”

“We have $80,000 incubators, but the best place for a baby to grow is inside mom. The second-best place is skin-to-skin with the parent. The third place is our incubators — that is not the best place for a baby to grow,” McLaren said.

The benefits of skin-to-skin contact, McLaren said, include weight gain and stronger brain connections.

McLaren said the minimum time to hold babies skin-to-skin is one hour. She said it’s “stressful” for babies to come out of the incubators.

“The idea is just to make it a little easier for families to hold their babies, because when you’re in a recliner… and you’ve been up all night, pumping your milk, and you’re pretty tired — you just delivered a baby — you get your baby, and you’re in a recliner and after an hour, those eyelids are getting pretty heavy. We don’t want the babies to fall,” McLaren said.

“With this wrap, though, they’re held securely so they can hold longer. We know that skin-to-skin kangaroo care, is what we call dose-dependent — the more you do it, the more of the benefits you get.”

MacNeil, who has another child, Lily, said she was unaware of the benefits of skin-to-skin contact following her first pregnancy.

“I didn’t know the importance of skin-to-skin. It was never described to me or taught to me when I had my first,” MacNeil said. “With him, learning that has been a big learning curve for me and I feel guilty not having done that for my first. He definitely has a leg up because of how it helps so much with their development as well.”

Since introducing the kangaroo care wraps at SMH, McLaren said she’s heard comments from parents saying they’re “happy” and “actually feeling like a parent.”

“You can imagine anyone that has to come (to NICU)… it is a stressful time, where words liked ‘happy’ and ‘content’ and ‘relaxed’ are not usually part of their usual vernacular.”

It’s the same for MacNeil, who said it has been a “positive experience amidst all the kind of negativity.”

“To have it be an easier process where sort of everything in this whole experience for me, so far, has not been easy but this is the one thing that has been really easy.”



lauren.collins@surreynowleader.com

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Lauren Collins

About the Author: Lauren Collins

I'm a provincial reporter for Black Press Media's national team, after my journalism career took me across B.C. since I was 19 years old.
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