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[Source Medical News Today]
Kangaroo Mother Care – a technique in which a breastfed premature infant remains in skin-to-skin contact with the parent’s chest rather than being placed in an incubator – has lasting positive impact on brain development, revealed Universite Laval researchers in the October issue of Acta Paediatrica. Very premature infants who benefited from this technique had better brain functioning in adolescence – comparable to that of adolescents born at term – than did premature infants placed in incubators.
Earlier research showed that infants born prior to the 33rd week of pregnancy experienced more cognitive and behavioral problems during childhood and adolescence. Université Laval researchers Cyril Schneider and Réjean Tessier, of the Department of Rehabilitation in the Faculty of Medicine and of the School of Psychology, respectively, and their Colombian colleagues Nathalie Charpak (Kangaroo Foundation) and Juan Ruiz-Peláez (Universidad Javeriana) wanted to determine if Kangaroo Mother Care could prevent these problems. To that end they compared, at age 15, 18 premature infants kept in incubators, 21 premature infants held in Kangaroo contact for an average of 29 days, and 9 term infants.
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