Fairfield hospital implements ‘kangaroo care’ to help parents bond with their newborns
Fairfield Hospital in Sydney’s west has introduced ‘kangaroo care’ — helping parents bond with their newborns while boosting breastfeeding rates.
NSW
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THEY are the cuddles helping transform the lives of newborns and a Western Sydney hospital.
Maternity staff at Fairfield Hospital are pushing kangaroo care — or skin-to-skin contact — to boost low breastfeeding rates and the bond between parents and babies.
The initiative was introduced after a turbulent time for the hospital with a coronial inquest held into the death of a baby girl in November 2014.
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“We’ve had a spate of poor media releases and a coronial inquest so this has been really important for us to really take it on,” maternity manager Stephanie Nunn said.
“The purpose of us exploring kangaroo care is part of a bigger picture for Fairfield Hospital. We put our heads together at the start of the year and thought of a goal to focus on and for us it was breastfeeding.”
The NSW deputy coroner last month found newborn girl Manusiu Amone died of natural causes.
The kangaroo care model at Fairfield is already having an impact with more mothers choosing to breastfeed with rates jumping from 39 per cent in 2016 to 58 per cent. The hospital also won a national competition promoting kangaroo care to improve the health of premature babies.
Patient and first-time mum Chansocheat Chea, 24, has witnessed a “big difference” since adopting kangaroo care after her son Anthony was born seven weeks premature on June 27.
Ms Chea has been using skin-to-skin contact for up to six hours a day, helping Anthony to feed and sleep.