Kangaroo care by fathers and mothers: comparison of physiological and stress responses in preterm XXXX .

@entity1 @entity26 @entity701
OBJECTIVE: To compare physiological and biochemical responses in stable preterm neonates and their parents following kangaroo mother care (KMC) and kangaroo father care (KFC). STUDY DESIGN: We conducted a prospective cross-over design study of stable preterm neonates of <35 weeks gestation in a tertiary Neonatal Unit in Toronto. All neonates received KMC and KFC for 1   h on consecutive days in a random order. Heart rate, temperature, blood pressure, @entity26 saturation and salivary @entity701 in @entity1 before and after kangaroo care and heart rate, temperature and salivary @entity701 in parents before and after kangaroo care were measured. Pairwise comparisons of changes in these measures were analyzed. RESULT: Twenty-six sets of neonates and their parents were studied for physiological parameters, of which 19 had adequate samples for salivary @entity701 assessment. The @entity1 had a mean birth weight of 1096   g (s.d.=217) and a mean postmenstrual age at study of 32 weeks (s.d.=2). There were no significant differences in the changes in mean heart rate (P=0.51), temperature (P=0.37), @entity26 saturation (P=0.50), systolic blood pressure (P=0.32), mean blood pressure (0.10) and salivary @entity701 (P=0.50) before and after KMC or KFC in the neonates. The changes in mean heart rate (P=0.62), temperature (P=0.28) and salivary @entity701 (P=0.59) before and after kangaroo care were similar between mothers and fathers. CONCLUSION: No significant differences in physiological and stress responses were identified following KMC or KFC in preterm neonates. KFC may be as safe and as effective as KMC.Journal of Perinatology advance online publication, 17 December 2015; doi:10.1038/jp.2015.196.
