Kangaroo mother care in the neonatal intensive care unit: staff attitudes and beliefs and opportunities for parents.

AIM: To compare attitudes towards Kangaroo mother care (KMC) among staff in two high-tech neonatal intensive care units, which provided parents with different opportunities to get involved in their infants' care.

METHOD: Questionnaires were completed by healthcare staff in Unit A, which provided parents with unrestricted access so that they could provide continuous KMC, and Unit B, where parents could only practice KMC intermittently.

RESULTS: Unit A staff were more positive about the benefits and use of KMC, including its use in unstable infants, and rated their knowledge and practical skills more highly than staff in the other unit. Unit B staff also appreciated the method, but expressed more hesitation in using it with unstable infants. In particular, they stressed the need to adapt the physical environment of the NICU to enable parents to stay with their infants and practice the method.

CONCLUSION: Staff working in the NICU that gave parents unrestricted access were more positive about KMC than staff in the NICU that offered limited opportunities for parents to stay with their children. This finding suggests that it is important to eliminate unjustifiable obstacles to the presence of parents in the NICU, so that they can provide KMC.