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Description
The early contact between mother and baby is known as skin-to-skin, also referred to as “kangaroo care” (KC). It involves placing the baby on the mother’s chest as soon as it is appropriate (Thompson, 1979). This interaction was primarily for bonding but many researchers have discovered additional benefits. There is significant correlation between kangaroo care and weight gain (especially for low birth weight infants), as well as body temperature and heart rate regulation, which reduces the risk of medical complications. It also decreases levels of stress in mothers and babies by lowering the release of cortisol hormone (Mohammadi et al. 2021). The purpose of this study is to investigate the disparities in access and utilization of KC for newborns. The study will also assess the impact of these disparities on maternal and infant outcomes such as weight gain, temperature regulation, neurocognitive enhancement, particularly among families of low-socioeconomic status. A literature review investigated research on topics such as benefits of kangaroo care, challenges and disparities for implementation of kangaroo care for families with low socioeconomic status, and prenatal teaching as an intervention. Pregnant women will be randomly assigned to either the control or experimental group receiving the intervention. We will use descriptive statistics to compare the means of the two groups of women. The inferential statistics will be used to determine the p-value and predict statistical significance . If the p-value is lower than 0.05 there will be a higher probability that the results are statistically significant and not by random chance that prenatal education will increase kangaroo care as an intervention, therefore we can reject the null hypothesis.
Department
Nursing
Publication Date
Spring 2023
Sponsorship/Conference/Institution
The Scholarly and Creative Works Conference, Dominican University of California
City
San Rafael, CA
Keywords
kangaroo care, skin-to-skin, NICU, low SES, education, newborn
Disciplines
Maternal, Child Health and Neonatal Nursing | Nursing | Nursing Midwifery | Public Health and Community Nursing
Included in
Maternal, Child Health and Neonatal Nursing Commons, Nursing Midwifery Commons, Public Health and Community Nursing Commons