Babywearing guide book

Stress and milk production are related factors. Some studies maintain that only a very small percentage of mothers does not physiologically produce milk, and that the psychological element plays a fundamental role in this. Ample documentation17 in the literature confirms that those who use the kangaroo method produce more milk, because the close and intimate mother-baby contact acts on the mother's stress and motivation. Some premature babies do not have the strength to latch on to the breast, so the mother has to "pump the milk". It has been proven that if this happens with the child nearby, production "magically" increases. Why? Evidently there are facilitating emotional and affective factors that increase its production. The effects of KMC on breastfeeding have been the subject of some studies18, conducted in both low-income and high-income countries (where KMC is started later and intermittently); in both cases, studies have shown that the kangaroo method increases the prevalence and duration of breastfeeding. Scholars agree that “... the earlier skin-to-skin contact begins, the greater the effect on breastfeeding”19. Breast milk is one of the requirements/objectives of the kangaroo method. It is a requirement, as it is the main food for newborns, especially if they are preterm. Where it does not occur spontaneously after childbirth - if and only if the conditions are right - it must become a primary objective and the mother must be placed in the most serene emotional condition possible to help her body produce it. It is an absolutely unique and incredible nourishment: in nutritional terms it adapts, i.e. its composition changes, to the needs according to the gestational age of the child. What a perfect machine nature is! As soon as possible, therefore, the baby is placed between the mother's breasts (see the following illustration): the vertical position thus assumed by the newborn in the Kangaroo facilitates, in addition to the first encounter, also breastfeeding.