CAMAGÜEY. - The Maternal-Infantile hospital Ann Betancourt, of this city, added to its services the Program Mother - Baby Kangaroo or the method Skin to skin since the last trimester of last year, with a view to protect the children´s health with low weight at birth, premature babies or not, benefit that they receive even in ventilation period.
The attention begins in the Room of Neonatology, where the mother comes and spends with her child about 12 hour, and when he or she reaches between 1 400 or 1 600 grams and he or she gains autonomy while breastfeeding and breathing, they are moved to other room to continue the procedure in a cozy and calm ambience, and mother and son spend together 24 hours a day.
In both places the specialized personnel advises the mother every step she has to fallow, they teach her how to place the baby, to breastfeed, to speak to him, to caress him, to sing to him and to feel the beats of his heart because, undoubtedly, this offers them protection and safety.
The Dr. Elizabeth Avilés Carmenates, specialist in Neonatology, holding a Master's degree in Integral Attention to the Child and responsible for this practice there, integrated to the Program of Maternal-Infantile Attention in Cuba, she assured the benefits of this conduct that propitiates in the baby a more rapid weight profit, it diminishes the risk of suffering infections and apneas (transitory suspension of the respiration), keeps a stable temperature, reduces the acoustic and visual trauma produced by the incubators´ engines, for example. It also benefits the breast feeding to free demand, improves the sleep, provides cardiorespiratory regulation, and the treatment costs are reduced in a considerable way and, of course, the days of hospital admission.
In the mother, the Dr. Avilés insisted that it facilitates the breast feeding, reduces his anxiety and the postnatal depression, dominates the care of his son and the roll as protector becomes strong. This direct contact, the love, fondness and the heat that the child receives accelerates the process of weight increasing to reach the ideal weight.
Translated by Linet Acuña Quilez
Dayana Montesinos feels the happiness of an inexperienced mother, and although she said: "My girl Lorraine Milagros Santos wanted to be born on March, the 1st, before time, and with 1 180 grams, or two pounds and six ounces, I see how she prospers, and I feel that she pays me attention and it even seems that she laughs. The attention has been wonderful and I hope to breastfeed her soon, I am already teaching her with the help of the nurses”.