Kangaroo (Mother) Care

Kangaroo Care in a Low-birth weight baby:
Introduction
This assignment will aim to explore the impact of Kangaroo care in a low birth weight baby and determine any evidence to support this. A definition of Kangaroo care and also a brief history will be given. A literature search review will be attached and an article chosen for critique purpose will be discussed. A brief medical history of the mother of the baby will be provided. NMC (2007) advises on confidentiality therefore, the mother of the baby will be named as ‘Mrs Z’ and baby will be ‘baby T’.
Background:
Low birth weight is recognized as a significant health problem and Kangaroo care (skin to skin) has been proposed as a conventional care for low birth weight babies (Ball, 2004). Low birth weight has been defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as weight at birth of less than 2500g (WHO, 2004). Bailey (2012), agrees with WHO definition and also adds that low birth weight is defined as infant’s weight of less than 2500g regardless of gestation age. Maternal medical and social conditions before and during pregnancy have been identified as contributing factors to low birth weight infants (Ball, 2004). WHO (2004) women who are socially deprived are also presented with poor nutrition during pregnancy which contributes to low birth weight infants. Smoking, alcohol intake and drug abuse and some factors that could contribute to low birth weight babies, some of which were presented by Mrs Z. LBW is closely associated with fetal and perinatal mortality and morbidity, inhibited growth and cognitive development, and chronic diseases later in life (Ball, 2004). LBW is an important predictor of newborn health and survival and is associated with higher risk of infant and childhood mortality (Conde-Agudelo, Diaz-Rossello and Belizan, 2000).
Whereas, Kangaroo care is a technique that would usually be practiced on newborns or pre term babies where the infants are held against an adults bare chest

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