Comparison of kangaroo mother care with traditional care (Incubator) of premature infants in order to accelerate discharge criteria

Kangaroo mother care (KMC) is effective care method that avoids aggressive routinely methods in neonatal wards. Objective of this study was comparing KMC with conventional care (incubator) of premature Infant in neonatal ward. This study was a randomized controlled clinical trial that has been done in 17 months. 40 premature neonates whose birth weight was less than 1500gr were enrolled in the study and categorized with stratified randomization in two groups of case and control. The Kangaroo group was subjected to kangaroo care at least 6 hours per day and control group received routine conventional incubator care. Two groups were compared for weight gain, hospitalization period, saturation of arterial oxygen, body temperature, and apnea. The data were analyzed with t test, Chi-Square, fisher&rsquo;s exact test and Mann Whitney test. P< 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Two groups were similar for base line characteristics. Mean weight gain was 19.3&plusmn;9.7 gr/day in kangaroo group compared to 17.7&plusmn;9.5 gr/day in control group (P=0.47). Mean duration of hospitalization mean episode of apnea other variables such as saturation of oxygen and body temperature have not significant difference. At present, in Bandar Abbas children hospital, the KMC method, compare to routine method has no advantage or disadvantage