Kangaroo Mother Care and the Bonding Hypothesis

PEDIATRICS Vol. 102 No. 2 August 1998, p. e17

Réjean Tessier*, Marta Cristo, Stella Velez, Marta Girón, SW; Zita Figueroa de Calume, Juan G. Ruiz-Paláez, Yves Charpak, and Nathalie Charpak

From the *School of Psychology, Laval University, Québec, Canada; ISS-World Lab, Kangaroo Mother Care Program, Clinica del Nino, Santa Fe de Bogotá, Colombia; - Clinical Epidemiology Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Javeriana University, Santa Fe de Bogotá, Colombia; and EVAL (Institut pour l'Évaluation dans le domaine Médical, Médico-social et de Santé Publique), Paris, France.

FOOTNOTES

Received for publication Jun 24, 1997; accepted Mar 30, 1998.

Address correspondence to
Réjean Tessier, PhD,
School of Psychology, Université Laval,
Ste-Foy, Québec,
Canada, G1K 7P4.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This study was supported jointly by grants from COLCIENCIAS (Colombian government), the World Laboratory (nongovernmental organization, Lausanne, Switzerland, project MCD 13), the ISS (Instituto de Seguros Sociales), Colombia, and UNICEF.

We thank all members of the Kangaroo research team of the Clinica del Nino: A. Mondragón, MD; R. Gómez, MD; R. Martínez, RN; F.A. Gómez, RN; and Mrs M.V. Jiménez for facilitating the many steps of the process. Without their commitment and devotion, this study could not have been developed. We also thank Ms Pascale Mercier for codifying part of the mother-infant interactions, and Ms. Line Nadeau for help with data processing and statistical analyses. We acknowledge general practitioners and neonatal intensive care unit and nurses at the San Pedro Claver Hospital for their support throughout the project. Finally, we thank the parents for their cooperation and participation.

ABBREVIATIONS

KMC: kangaroo mother care
LBW: low birth weight
NICU: neonatal intensive care unit.