NICU Kangaroo-a-thon Promotes Early Family Bonding

Pediatrix® Neonatology of Eastern Washington at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, Washington, recently held its first-ever Kangaroo-a-thon in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in an effort to increase parental holding time for critically ill and premature infants. 

“We launched this Kangaroo-a-thon to start the process of making sure all babies get held more often,” said Nicollette Williams, neonatal nurse practitioner. “The goal was holding babies, and that’s exactly what was done.” 

Following months of staff training, the initiative was a huge success. The team aimed for 700 holding hours and hit 622! Now, kangaroo care, or skin-to-skin contact, has become standard of care in the unit and parents are holding their babies sooner and more than ever before. 

Benefits of Kangaroo Care

Kangaroo care allows moms and dads to truly bond with their babies.

“There’s so much evidence that early skin-to-skin is important for babies and for the parents,” said Williams.

Kangaroo care is proven to:

• Support long-term neurodevelopment.
• Promote brain development.
• Increase frontal lobe and brain activity.
• Improve autonomic regulations, which improves the heart rate and breathing, which then improves oxygenation. “In our preemie babies that have problems with oxygenation, this is huge for them,” said Williams. 
• Help with temperature regulation. “Moms have a very special way of keeping their babies warm inside their belly, and it continues outside,” said Williams. “When moms hold their babies and their babies are getting cold, like a premature baby that doesn’t have enough fat on its body, moms warm up their bodies to then warm up their baby. It’s pretty incredible to see.” 
• Lower pain perceptions.
• Improve longer periods of sleep, which improves weight gain.
• Decrease time to transition to the breast and improve the mother’s milk production.
• Decrease length of hospital stay.

Training Staff and Parents

A key factor in the event’s success was the staff’s readiness to implement early skin-to-skin contact. 

“If nurses and respiratory therapists are nervous, parents will be nervous,” said Williams. “We really wanted to make sure we focused on getting our providers completely ready and comfortable with the holding process so that they can bring their confidence forward to the parents. Parents sense the nurses fear and hesitation, so prepping our team was a huge part of the training process.”

Six months ahead of implementation, staff participated in bootcamps where they learned how to hold and how mom and dad will pick their baby up, as the goal is for parents to do so rather than having a nurse pass the baby to mom or dad. Providers were also trained to hold infants receiving respiratory support on oscillators and ventilators, where they worked through mock emergency situations, and ensure a support team of at least three staff members plus the parent(s) are at the bedside during holding. 

Parents received training to help ease their anxieties as well. Before picking their baby up, they watched an instructional video, reviewed educational materials and completed a walkthrough.

“Parents have so much courage and less fear because we prepare them before it ever even happens,” said Williams. “It was so exciting to see parents, nurses, respiratory therapists and the developmental care team get on board and work on holding babies and increasing holding time.”

Skin-to-Skin Becomes Standard of Care

Now, it is customary for babies to be put in mom and dad’s arms in the first few hours or day of life. Babies are held immediately when they arrive at the NICU as soon as they’re stabilized, and mom or dad can come to the bedside. 

“It’s changed our unit,” said Williams. “Before, oscillator babies were only held at the end of life. It is now standard of care that oscillator babies are held regularly, even on a normal day as long as they’re stable to do so.” 

Families have been so grateful to hold early on, especially those that were able to enjoy holding moments before the end of life. Many have pictures documenting the journey of improved respiratory function, first holding their babies on the oscillator and then as they graduated to the ventilator, CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure), nasal canula and finally, the day of going home. Extremely premature babies with severe respiratory distress are going home with no oxygen or feeding tube. 

“It’s cool to see the transition and parents feel so much more bonded to their baby because they’ve been there every single day holding,” said Williams.

Mia’s Story

I’m Estefany, mom to a little warrior named Mía.

Mía decided to come into this world much earlier than expected — she was born at just 25 weeks, weighing only 1 pound and 8 ounces. I never in my life imagined that such a tiny baby could survive.

On her second day of life, once she was stable, a nurse came to me and gently asked if I wanted to hold her. My hands were shaking, I was scared, but my heart was full of love and excitement. I said yes, and from that moment on, we never stopped holding her. Every day, every hour of skin-to-skin, every little touch was a step forward.

Our routine became our strength: arriving at the hospital, being with Mía, participating in her care and then the moment we looked forward to the most — kangaroo time. Sometimes two, three, even four hours. And every time she touched my chest, her oxygen levels would rise, her breathing would calm — it was as if her little body knew she was safe.

While holding her skin-to-skin, we sang to her, told her stories, described the beautiful world outside, and we always prayed. Those moments didn’t just help her grow stronger — they filled us with hope.

Day by day, we watched our little girl win battle after battle. Every progress, every milestone, we celebrated like the miracle it was. I am convinced that all that love, that contact (kangaroo time), that time together made all the difference.

Mía spent 110 days in the NICU. It was an emotional roller coaster, but thanks to God and the incredible medical team, we were almost always moving upward — toward recovery, toward life. And we really think so much of this was due to skin-to-skin. 

Today, all we can say is: THANK YOU. Thank you to the NICU team for your patience, for your empathy, for treating our baby as if she were your own, for standing by our side in every hard moment and every victory. We will forever carry each of you in our hearts.

Mía is living proof that miracles exist, and we are the proudest, most grateful parents in the world.

Learn more about our neonatology services or find care in your area.