This month marks International Kangaroo Care Awareness Day (May 15th, 2021), a global initiative to raise awareness and highlight the physiological and psychological benefits of kangaroo care, also known as skin-to-skin contact.
This International Kangaroo Care Awareness Day, WaterWipes have developed a video with Dr Susan Ludington, Professor of Pediatric Nursing, showcasing the immediate benefits of skin-to skin contact on babies.
We are also proud to be collaborating with a number of organizations, hospitals, healthcare professionals, and charities across the globe to celebrate the day, encourage skin-to-skin contact, and further highlight its benefits.
USA
Across the USA, we’re encouraging all healthcare professionals to join in our Kangaroo Care social challenge. We want to hear how you make skin-to-skin contact a priority in your unit or department, and how you encourage new parents to practice it.
To participate in the challenge:
Post an Instagram or Facebook photo of how your unit encourages Kangaroo Care and share why the practice is important.
Tag @WaterWipesUSA and include #ThisIsKangarooCare
The winning entry will receive 10 cases of WaterWipes and WaterWipes branded gear for their entire unit. The challenge starts 5/15/21 and ends 6/18/21 at noon EST. One winner will be announced on 6/18/21. Entrants must follow participation guidelines to be considered. This contest is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by Instagram or Facebook. By entering, entrants confirm they are at least 18 years of age, release Instagram and Facebook of responsibility and agree to Instagram and Facebook’s Terms of Use. Participants must live in the continental United States or Canada.
Australia
WaterWipes is delighted to be collaborating with the Miracle Babies Foundation, Australia’s leading organization supporting premature or sick newborns and the hospitals that care for them.
We will be supporting Miracle Babies with their annual Kangaroo-a-thon, an initiative that raises awareness of the importance of Kangaroo Care and encourages hospitals to ‘compete’ against each other in achieving the most Kangaroo Care hours between 15th – 29th May. This includes skin-to-skin contact and all forms of Kangaroo holding (including modified holding for vulnerable NICU babies) in the two-week period.
The winning hospital will receive a Kangaroo care chair, sponsored for and proudly donated by WaterWipes, to encourage parents to kangaroo their babies all year round.
Check out the Kangaroo-a-thon page to get your hospital unit involved.
UK and Ireland
In the UK, we have partnered with midwife and author Marie-Louise to help advise healthcare professionals on how they can best support new parents in continuing to practice skin-to-skin contact amid the COVID-19 restrictions. To learn more about how you can reassure parents during the pandemic and encourage them to kangaroo their baby safely, check out Marie’s tips.
In Ireland, we are working with the Irish Midwives and Nurses Organisation (INMO) and Midwife and Childbirth Educator Avril Flynn, to highlight the benefits of Kangaroo Care to healthcare professionals.
France
In France we will be hosting an Instagram live in May with neonatal nurse Alexia-Puéricultrice. For healthcare professionals interested in joining the Q&A and learning more about the positive effects of skin-to-skin for preterm infants, follow the WaterWipes France Instagram channel.
