Kangaroo Care lesson for Grey’s Anatomy

November 8, 2009 by Cathy Ribble
Filed under: News

Grey’s Anatomy actors and fans had a lesson in preemie kangaroo care this week.

Thursday’s episode kicked off with an emergency c-section for a pregnant woman injured in an auto accident. The medical crisis intensified as both mom and baby experienced bleeding on their brains.

As both mom and baby seem to make a turn for the worse, the frantic mother screams out that she does not want her baby to die without even being held. Dr. Karev’s focus on the baby’s medical needs gradually clears his head of his own problems with Izzy. Finally, Karev cannot resist the infant any longer, and he cuddles the tiny baby to his chest. When Dr. Bailey enters the nursery, she notices that the baby’s numbers on the medical monitors are improving. Bailey experiences an epiphany and demands that Karev remove his shirt so that the baby will have skin-to-skin contact. Karev gets his first lesson in the preemie phenomenon known as “kangaroo care.”

Kangaroo care refers to skin-to-skin holding between a premature newborn, preferably with the baby’s parents. The child thrives on the nearness, warmth and love of another human being. Kangaroo care babies experience fewer apnea and bradycardia episodes and their oxygen needs begin to stabilize.

These babies begin to maintain their body temperature, and they are calmed by the present of their mother. The process usually begins with the birth mother if she is able, and then gradually kangaroo times are alternated between mother and father.

As infants become strong enough, there is a natural progression to breastfeeding. Often, the mother will experience an increase in her milk production. This is especially important if a mother is trying to provide breastmilk for twins or other multiple births.

Just as the NICU warming beds simulate the mother’s womb, the skin-on-skin contact simulates the process which happens when a baby kangaroo continues to grow and develop in his mother’s pouch. The process provides excellent teaching opportunities for the new parents to begin learning the complexities of caring for a premature infant.

When my twin grandsons were born three months early, they were so tiny they had to be separated and placed in separate warming beds in separate rooms. Finally, the NICU nurses began kangaroo care with each baby, and then one day the nurses reunited the boys for the first time since birth on their mother’s chest. That was a very special moment for this grandmother who had tears of joy in her eyes as she watched her grandsons reach out to each other.