Kangaroo Mother Care?
April 24, 2008 — Richard
by Timmy Toucan
Kangaroo mother care diminishes pain from heel lance in very preterm neonates: A crossover trial:
[Via BioMed Central - Latest articles]
Background:
Skin-to-skin contact, or kangaroo mother care (KMC) has been shown to be efficacious in diminishing pain response to heel lance in full term and moderately preterm neonates. The purpose of this study was to determine if KMC would also be efficacious in very preterm neonates.
Methods:
Preterm neonates (n=61) between 28 0/7 and 31 6/7 weeks gestational age in three Level III NICU’s in Canada comprised the sample. A single-blind randomized crossover design was employed. In the experimental condition, the infant was held in KMC for 15 minutes prior to and throughout heel lance procedure. In the control condition, the infant was in prone position swaddled in a blanket in the incubator. The primary outcome was the Premature Infant Pain Profile (PIPP), which is comprised of three facial actions, maximum heart rate, minimum oxygen saturation levels from baseline in 30-second blocks from heel lance. The secondary outcome was time to recover, defined as heart rate return to baseline. Continuous video, heart rate and oxygen saturation monitoring were recorded with event markers during the procedure and were subsequently analyzed. Repeated measures analysis-of-variance was used to generate results.
Results:
PIPP scores at 90 seconds post lance were significantly lower in the KMC condition (8.871 (95%CI 7.852-9.889) versus 10.677 (95%CI 9.563-11.792) p Conclusions:
Very preterm neonates appear to have endogenous mechanisms elicited through skin-to-skin maternal contact that decrease pain response, but not as powerfully as in older preterm neonates. The shorter recovery time in KMC is clinically important in helping maintain homeostasis.
You learn something new all the time. Now the term Kangaroo mother care makes sense, since kangaroos are born as what we would call a neonate. It is interesting that the pain response changes as the baby nears full term. Now when I meet a new mother, I can ask her if she practices KMC.
