Picture a woman who has just given birth prematurely. Her baby boy was born by cesarean section, and now she has a surgical incision that needs to heal. Her son, who is in the neonatal intensive care unit, has trouble breathing and regulating his body temperature. Both mother and son are in the process of healing. In order to become well, they need many things that modern medicine can offer. But they also need each other.
When my medical students visit the N.I.C.U. for the first time, they expect to find evidence of our technological prowess, which is considerable. What always surprises them is that one of the most powerful “treatments” in this highly technical space is something almost disarmingly simple: a baby sleeping on someone’s chest.
We call it “skin-to-skin” or “kangaroo care.” The premature infant is placed on the bare chest of his mother, father, or another caregiver and held there, sometimes for hours. Preterm babies who receive this kind of care have better temperature regulation, more stable heart rates, and fewer breathing problems. We now have data showing that skin-to-skin contact can reduce mortality in hospitalized infants who weigh less than four pounds by forty percent. This isn’t the result of a new drug or device; it is simply what happens when one body is pressed close to another, out of love.