The statistics are staggering: According to the March of Dimes, more than 470,000 infants are born prematurely in the United States every year, and the rate of premature births has increased to an estimated 29 percent between 1981 to 2002. Born too soon, these babies are often too tiny and sick to go home.

Because their premature babies face tremendous medical and physical obstacles to overcome in their lives, parents can become overwhelmed with the fear of the unknown. Spending weeks or possibly months in a hospital neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), parents, longing to touch and hold their tiny babies, may be afraid that if they attempt to try they may unknowingly hurt their baby. However, there is a safe way for these families to begin the bonding process through a method called Kangaroo Care.

The practice of Kangaroo Care originated in South America. After gaining much success throughout that continent, the method quickly gained popularity throughout Europe and later in the United States. Modeled after the way a kangaroo carries her offspring, this direct, skin-to-skin contact is usually best accomplished when Mom or Dad is sitting in a rocking chair. The diapered baby, usually deemed stable by the medical staff in a NICU, is placed either on the father's bare chest or between a mother's breasts.

"The parent's shirt or blouse is closed around the infant, and an additional blanket is placed on top," explains Karen Goldschmidt, a clinical level IV nurse in the Newborn Infant Center at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "Infants need human touch to survive, and it is an important part of their development. Kangaroo Care is a wonderful, safe way for new parents to interact and nurture their baby. The infant is calmed through the warmth of their parent's skin and the sound of the parent's breathing, voice and heartbeat."

Research has confirmed that Kangaroo Care may assist in maintaining a premature baby's body warmth, establishing weight gain and regulating heart and breathing rates. "It has been shown time and time again that Kangaroo Care causes a regulation of heart rate, breathing and temperature control," says Dr. Karen D. Henricks-Munoz, chief of neonatology at New York University Medical Center and Bellevue Hospital Center in New York.

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