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As originally described, and as generally practiced worldwide, skin-to-skin contact is only “allowed” after the baby has stabilised. The assumption therefore is that a baby requires incubator care in order to stabilise. The reality is that incubators actually “de-stabilise” newborns.
Newborns have a brain-wiring (neurophysiology) that craves and requires mother’s presence in order to stabilise, in order to achieve adjustment to a new environment and physiological homeostasis.
The randomised controlled trial which compares mothers skin for stabilisation with incubator for stabilisation, is published in the journal “Acta Paediatrica”, in June 2004, (volume 93, pages 779 to 785), and is copyright of that journal. The abstract and references are available here with their permission:
• AbstractAt the conclusion of the study, a “layman’s summary” was forwarded to the Funders: Thrasher Research Fund, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. This summarises the findings of the study is available here:
• Layman’s SummaryThe original research and experience for this study came from Zimbabwe, where Dr Bergman and Sister Agneta Jurisoo were the first to practice Birth KMC on all newborn infants instead of using incubators. Survival of Very Low Birth Weight newborns increased from 10% to 50%.
• Manama storyThe practical details involved exnteded use of a specially designed shirt to ensure continuous skin-tos0kin contact: the KangaCarrier. The detailed method for using the shirt in this and other ways can be found here:
• KangaCarrier Use Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader
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