This Kangaroo Care Awareness Day is a special one...

Kangaroo Care Awareness Day is observed on the 15th of May ever year and it's a day dedicated to raising awareness on the importance of Kangaroo Care for both the babies and parents.

Kangaroo care or skin-to-skin contact is a special way both mums, dads and partners can spend time holding their baby and it is an experience parents remember fondly during their hospital stay.  Whilst it is great for bonding there is also evidence of the medical benefits for your baby. 

In November 2023 the World Health Organisation (WHO) released results from research and the lifesaving impact of Immediate Kangaroo Mother Care on babies worldwide. 

The WHO explains Kangaroo Mother Care as: 

“Kangaroo mother care is a method of care for preterm infants. The method involves infants being carried, usually by the mother, with skin-to-skin contact. This guide is intended for health professionals responsible for the care of low-birthweight and preterm infants.” 

In Australia, commonly referred to as Kangaroo Care or Skin to Skin contact, this care provided as early as possible after birth to your baby is an important part of your baby’s care.  Speak with your baby’s health care team and make it part of your routine when with your baby to request kangaroo care or skin to skin as often as possible.   

For Miracle Babies Foundation, we know how important it is for parents to feel connected to their babies and part of their care team while they are in the neonatal units, which is why we introduced our Kangaroo-a-thon. We encourage neonatal units to participate in a challenge to tally the highest kangaroo-cuddle hours at the end of the 2 week period, with the winning hospital receiving a kangaroo chair, generously funded by WaterWipes. It is a great way to spread awareness on the benefits of kangaroo care, whilst promoting skin-to-skin contact in the hospitals. This year is extra special, because it's our 10th Kangaroo-a-thon we've held!

Illustrations both created by Stacey Renee.

Tell us a little about your family
My husband and I are raising and homeschooling our four wonderful children on a homestead property in Central Queensland, surrounded by fields of wildflowers and babbling ducks and geese.

Can you please share a little about your neonatal unit experience?
I have worked several years as a Neonatal Nurse. I fondly remember many nights on the Special Care Nursery, tending to precious premature and unwell babies. Soothing and treating their needs. Empowering parents as they navigate that space and all it entailed.
Two of our own full term newborn babies have also needed admission into the Special Care Nursery due to breathing difficulties. Having to experience the Nursery from a parent’s perspective has given me a great deal more empathy.

What were a few of the best things and the toughest things of your family’s experience?
As an emotionally-fragile postnatal mum, I found it incredibly hard to be separated from my newborn baby, as he was contained within an isolette hooked up to leads and CPAP to support his breathing. I cherished every moment I could hold him on my bare skin, comfort him and feed him. I wanted desperately to be his safe place and it grieved me when I couldn’t be. I was incredibly thankful to have a bed close by in the ward, so I could continue to breastfeed my babies (when they were well enough) through the nights while they were in the nursery.

As a nurse, you are aware of the benefits that kangaroo care brings to both parents and the baby. What was it like the first time you held your own baby in the unit?
It was a beautiful healing, bonding and soothing moment for my baby and I. His heart rate and breathing stabilized while he lay on my chest, comforted by the rhythm of my own breathing and heart rate. I too, felt grounded and as though I was contributing to his healing. I was incredibly thankful that my nurses advocated for Kangaroo Care and allowed him to feed, sleep, and receive treatment while on me for several hours.

What emotions are you experiencing when you get to facilitate a baby’s first kangaroo cuddle with their family?
I am so excited to be the one to expand their world to the concept of Kangaroo Care and allow them the opportunity to soothe, heal together and bond deeply with their baby. As a midwife, we also encourage both mum and dad to have skin to skin contact with their newborn babies for a significant amount of time following birth and before dressing them for the first time. I’m very proud to be an advocate for such an important therapy.

How has your experience in the neonatal unit as a family impacted the way you deliver your work as a nurse?
Having walked that journey myself, it has given me a great deal of empathy and compassion for the mothers and fathers in that position. I know how upsetting it can be and how helpless you can feel as a parent watching on. I know now how impenetrable those isolette walls can feel when you and your baby are on opposite sides from each other, especially after having them so close in your womb. I can relate to these parents and so deliver my care in such a way to support them in every way I can.

What words of encouragement do you have for Parents who have a baby in a neonatal unit currently?
If I could go back, I would tell myself to breathe and trust the process. I made myself sick with grief over the separation I felt with my baby in those few weeks and that did not help. The reality was that my baby was in very good hands, being cared for around the clock until he was well enough to come home with us. At the time, it felt like a lifetime of separation, but it is just a small moment in the bigger picture, and it can be made up with lots of continued kangaroo care at home, in the bathtub or shower together for months to come. As it turns out, he is still our snuggliest child now at 8 years old.

Talk us through the meaning behind your illustration
I now spend more time at my art studio desk with paint and pencils than I do in a Neonatal Ward (as much as I do miss it!). I love to create Children’s Picture Books and am working on a series around the Special Care Nursery and NICU. I have a passion to do my part in educating and normalising kangaroo care and the world behind the doors of the NICU / Special Care Nursery. Answering questions like, “Why are there tubes in our baby’s arm and nose?” Or “What is that machine for?” There are countless NICU graduates and siblings of NICU babies who would benefit from children’s stories and educational books about that special place and the care little ones receive there.
I also sell prints and illustrate custom portraits through my website and Etsy store. Come say hello - I’d love to hear from you!

www.staceyrenee.au
www.instagram.com/staceyreneeauthorillustrator
https://staceyreneestudio.etsy.com