kangaroo

 Alex Karev, Grey's Anatomy, holding a premature baby and giving her enough warmth to raise her body temperature.

This medical theory comes from the idea of a kangaroo, and that if a premature baby comes out it may just need the comfort of their mother (skin to skin) to help her through this hard time. In this case the mother was unaailabke because of her injuries so Karev naturally stepped in. We learned about this in class today and there was discussion of appropriateness of a doctor stepping in and doing this, but I think if I was unavailable and it would help my baby, I would be all for it. This is not just for premature babies, you can take your full term child and hold them skin to skin for a connection that is deeper than just holding them.

This brings me to another point- All babies need to be held. The most common time babies are held is when their mother is nursing. Over the holidays last year I stepped in and babysat for a family I do not know while their nanny was out of town. When it came to feeding time, I fed one and then the other so they could feel love and feel that I was nurturing them while feeding. Both babies were very fussy and squirming when I was feding them. This is when the mother came home, her reply to this was, "They aren't used to being held." I was so distraught I was holding back tears, a baby not used to being held? I urged for more of a respnse, and she said it is just difficukt because there were two of them. I didn't want to intrude on her parenting skills but I still think about it to this day. I nanny for twins and I like to think I give them as much love as possible, and I know that their parents do. So it kills me when parents who have th opportunity to show their babies how much they love them do not take advantage of it. Hold your babies, hg your babies, love your babies.