Twenty years ago a randomized controlled trial was begun in the country of Columbia to determine the benefits of “kangaroo mother care” (KMC) for preterm and low-birth-weight infants on their survival, duration of breastfeeding, neurodevelopment, and quality of mother-infant bonding. Two decades later, one might wonder whether the life course trajectory of these individuals differs from those in the study who did not receive KMC.
Fortunately Charpak et al. (10.1542/peds.2016-2063) have been able to find and reenroll 494 (69%) of the 716 infants now adults who participated in the study (both KMC babies and controls). The investigators opted to look at differences in health status as well as at cognitive, neurologic, and social functioning using a variety of neuroimaging and behavioral studies. The results are impressive in that those who received KMC care continued to show positive differences in the measures originally studied compared to controls.
For example, those who received KMC were found to have less school absenteeism and have less behavioral problems than those who did not, controlling for a number of variables. Parents of the KMC infants were identified as being more protective and nurturing of their children as they grew up compared to controls. This study certainly lends even more strength to KMC as a preferred method of nurturing high risk infants and further sheds light on the value added of this method and the import of the findings.
Pediatrician and Editorial Board member Dr. Lydia Furman, an expert on helping mothers breastfeed, checks in with a commentary (10.1542/peds.2016-3332) on this study also well worth reading. If you are unfamiliar with KMC or want some evidence to continue to recommend it to parents of your most fragile infants, then read this study and commentary so you can keep up-to-date on the benefits of this important parenting practice.
