Kangaroo care back in Winnipeg hospital for newborns

WINNIPEG — The Kangaroo Care Challenge is back at St. Boniface Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for a second year. It’s a way to bring parents and their babies together literally skin-to-skin.

The Kangaroo style care encourages parents and caregivers to lay together with babies bonding through touch.

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Experts say this type of bonding brings with it a lot of benefits, especially for babies born premature and living in the NICU.

Some benefits for mom and baby include:

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• Brain development for the babies
• Weight gain for babies
• Milk production for Mom

“I couldn’t hold him for a week and that week he lost weight and lost weight and then now I can hold him. And then the first time I held him for two days and then they weighed him and he was gaining weight,” said Stella Kehler.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I couldn't hold him for a week and that week he lost weight and lost weight and then now I can hold him. And then the first time I held him for two days and then they weighed him and he was gaining weight," said Stella Kehler.

New Mom, Chelsea Pakulak, said her baby girl was born four months early and she wasn’t even sure she would make it. But, she said through skin-to-skin touch she’s seen how her daughter has grown and developed so much faster.

“It really helps with our bonding and everyone wants to hold their baby and it really helped with the breastfeeding,” she said.