Kangaroo Holding Effects on Breast Milk

This study will address two of the overwhelming challenges in the physiologic care of premature infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) environment. The first challenge is promoting neonatal growth through providing a careful balance of nutrition to caloric expenditure for premature infants. The second challenge is supporting parents in the intensive, technology driven environment of the NICU to merge physiologic care with parental-infant interaction through touch, communication, and maternal intervention. The vast majority of mothers with premature infants express breast milk for early feedings, however milk production tends to diminish three to four weeks after delivery. The practice of skin-to-skin holding is thought to promote the mother's ability to produce breast milk, but had not been empirically tested. This study will examine the relationship of kangaroo holding on mother's breast milk production and composition.