Premature: cuddle against pain?

The kangaroo method, or skin to skin, is to bring the baby by one of his parents, skin against skin. It allows children born preterm remain at the proper temperature, and a recent study has shown that it also helped to fight against pain.

Premature babies: miracles and martyrs both

More and more, thanks to medical advances that save even more children born preterm, premature call,earth eternal gold, even if they are healthy, very special care. Their skin is very fragile, their nervous systems may not fully formed, and their lungs are often immature at birth. Birth is also often traumatic. Results: Children who are more sensitive to pain and anxiety than those born earlier. And yet that great need of medical pain – blood tests, probes, even intubation …

The method for skin skin

Attention is not a normal hug. The kangaroo method is to carry the child naked, upright, against the bare skin of parents. The baby is covered with a blanket. He then reached conditions similar to those of pregnancy: the temperature is close to normal body temperature, and slight movements made by the parent who cradled the baby breathes and also protect the skin. Anxiety, babies and parents, also decreases. With all these benefits, the experiences of parents and carers was that the pain was less likely in babies, but it remained to verify scientifically.

A better response to pain in the skin to skin

The researchers therefore examined the response to the suffering of children to whom they had a blood heel operation rather unpleasant. For premature infants (born between 32 and 36 weeks of pregnancy when it is normally 40), signs of pain were less clear when the child was raised by his father or mother.

And for very premature babies?

A U.S. study has assessed the responses to pain of very premature babies (born after 28 weeks of gestation, or six months of pregnancy). The difference between pain experienced during that babies were brought and pain when they were simply in an incubator was much smaller, and is triggered later, very premature babies are less susceptible to being worn. However, they were recovering more quickly from pain, which for experts who conducted the study, was also very important. This indeed indicates a child’s ability to bring his body into a state of form, which is an important skill for these little darlings were born too early.