CHILDCARE: Fathers can warm babies as well

Pregnancy, labor, childbirth and baby-care are terms that have always been associated with mothers. In the midst of all the joys and triumphs of labor and childbirth, we often tend to keep the fathers aside. But did you know that fathers have a unique role to play in caring for newborn babies as soon as they are brought into this world? It is not uncommon for a father to feel like a visitor or a spectator when their baby is in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at the hospital, in case the baby is born prematurely or has developed any complications.

Mothers often spend more time in the NICU and have the role of providing breast milk.  But there is a way fathers can be empowered so that they also feel like they have a significant role in their child’s life. Fathers need to gain practical skills related to caring for their newborn children, while building a lasting bond. A father needs to be an active parent during those initial moments of a child, after the birth, so that he establishes father-baby bonding firmly. The demands of today’s world have made many families to consider fathers as financial supporters than actually parents. Remember the mother has felt the child innately during those nine months of pregnancy but a father never had such a chance.

One way that fathers create that bond is through practicing Kangaroo—Father Care.  Until recently, modern technology in Neonatal Intensive Care separated mothers and fathers from their babies, believing babies to be too fragile and unstable to touch. Things are changing, however.  Latest research shows when there is separation of the baby from its mother, the situation makes babies in the incubators frightened and so unstable.

For starters, kangaroo care simply means giving an infant more skin-to-skin contact right after the birth. A parent places a newly born child on to the bare chest, so that newborns skin and parent’s get into contact. It’s a form of developmental care that has benefits for all newborns, especially those who are in the neonatal intensive care unit, mom or dad may gently hold their baby where they can be rocked, cuddled and hear comforting sounds of their parent’s heartbeat and voice.

When held in skin-to-skin contact, even the smallest baby will feel safe, and she will stabilize. With more advances, other aspects of care are being devised. Paternal skin-to-skin contact has been shown to be safe and effective for temperature regulation and for cardiorespiratory stabilization. It has been found out that fathers can warm their babies more than mothers. Some think this is overheating, but “overheating” has not been proved, it might be the “real normal temperature that fits the babies”.

One question I have always been asked is, what if the father has a hairy chest? Well, a baby does not have a preference when it comes to kangaroo care. The choice between going in an incubator versus being on dad’s warmth and, in some cases fuzzy chest, is easy. Fathers cannot give birth, but they can provide the same safety and comfort to their newborns by doing kangaroo father care.

Originally, it was believed that kangaroo care is meant for stabilizing a premature baby or a baby born with low weight to make the birth experience more peaceful and natural. But full-term babies can also benefit from the practice.

Kangaroo care can be practiced at any-time during the day. Practicing kangaroo care is just a minuscule part of newborn care. But dads should bear in mind that this act can do wonders for the baby.

There have been modern changes in health care, such that many babies are now born through caesarian section operation.  As a new role for fathers, neonates born through a c-section can benefit from the skin-to-skin contact with the father.  When a mother has had a cesarean section, there is a painful moment for both the mother and the baby. While the mother misses the opportunity to touch and feed the baby right after the birth, the baby misses out on the much needed skin-to-skin care from the mother.

When a family is blessed with twins, it is another scenario all together. We all know how difficult it is to manage twins. So if there are two babies laying in the baby cot,  a father can take turns with his wife to give them kangaroo care during those initial moments or the first few weeks of their life. Kangaroo care need not just be restricted to the initial moments--one can practice it often during those first few weeks after birth, when the child needs more assurance, care and body warmth from a parent. When it’s a premature baby that is born, studies show that premature babies benefit the maximum from kangaroo care than the full term ones.