Reviewing effects of kangaroo care on vital signs and relationship between mothers and infants in premature newborn infants

Objective: To review effects of kangaroo care (KC) on mother-infant relationship and vital signs of the infant in premature newborns. Materials and Methods: The present study of experimental type was conducted in Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of Hafsa Sultan Hospital of Manisa Celal Bayar University between September 2018 and November 2019. Sample of the study consisted of 40 premature newborn infants admitted in the NICU and their mother. The data were collected using "Infant's and Mother's Introductory Information Form", "Infant and KC monitoring form", "Postnatal Parenthood Behavior Scale", and "Maternal Bonding Scale". Descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney's U test, Wilcoxon, Kruskal-Wallis and chi-square tests were used for analysis of the data. Findings: In the present study, no statistically significant difference was found in sociodemographic characteristics except for birth weight (p<0.05) between the Study and Control groups. No significant difference was found in median scores of pretest and posttest of maternal bonding scale between the mothers in the Study and Control groups (p>0.05). It was found that significant difference existed in median respiratory rates before and after kangaroo care in the infants of Study group (p<0.05) with median rates before KC being significantly higher than those after KC. It was also found that no significant difference existed in in-group median scores for heart rate, SpO2, and body temperature in the infants of Study group (p>0.05). Significant difference was found in pretest and posttest heart rates between the Study and Control groups (p<0.05). It was found that median scores for pretest and posttest heart rate of the infants in the Study group was higher than those in the infants of Control group. Conclusions: The study found that KC had positive effects on vital signs of the premature infants but didn't affect maternal bonding.