美国国家公共电台 NPR Kangaroo Care Helps Preemies And Full Term Babies, Too

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST: 

Kangaroo mother care, it's a technique for mothers to bond with their newborns immediately after delivery. And the name kind of gives away what this is all about. Naked newborns are placed on their mother's bare chest, a little like a baby kangaroo in its mother pouch².

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: 

Aw, that sounds kind of sweet.

MARTIN: Yeah.

INSKEEP: Did you do that as a new mom?

MARTIN: I did.

INSKEEP: Of course.

MARTIN: In fact, I should note though, my husband did it, too.

INSKEEP: Oh, very nice - and people do encourage fathers to kind of bond with the child that way. This is common practice, especially for children who were born prematurely⁴. And it's growing popular for healthy full-term babies, too. Here's NPR's Patti Neighmond.

SALMA SHABAIK: Do you want to say something?

ALI: (Cooing).

PATTI NEIGHMOND, BYLINE⁵: Salma Shabaik nuzzles her newborn little boy, Ali.

SHABAIK: Hello? I think you want to tell us that you just want to sleep (laughter).

NEIGHMOND: Ali was born just two weeks ago - 8 pounds, 3 ounces, 20 inches long - with a full head of shiny black hair. He was delivered at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, where kangaroo mother care is routinely practiced.

SHABAIK: After he delivered. Immediately after, he was on my chest. Cleaning him off, like, rubbing him, all that happening while he was on my chest. I don't know if it was a pediatrician or a nurse practitioner⁶, but whoever was examining the baby examined him also while he was on my chest - so listening with the stethoscope and looking at him and whatnot, everything happening while he was laying on my chest.

NEIGHMOND: Which was different than her firstborn son, who was whisked away to a warming crib and weighed, measured and examined there. He cried a lot, she says. But within seconds of being placed on her chest, Ali stopped crying.

SHABAIK: I loved it. It was really nice to kind of have baby right there with you, rather than watching, trying to see what they're doing, you know, from the bed. When he's right there and I could feel him and touch him and kiss him and all of that - so I think it just added more depth to the delivery.

NEIGHMOND: And there are clear physical benefits for the baby. UCLA OB-GYN, Dr. Lydia Lee.

LYDIA LEE: It improves body temperature, so the baby doesn't cool off. It seems to lower the heartrate of the baby, stabilize⁷ the blood pressure. They seem to cry less and not grimace⁸ as much.

NEIGHMOND: When babies receive kangaroo mother care, they're better able to breast-feed. And mothers tend to breast-feed for a longer period of time. All good, says Lee, because breast-feeding is well known to keep babies healthy and avoid illness.

At UCLA and at hospitals nationwide, Lee says there's another growing practice aimed at naturalizing the birth experience - delaying cutting the umbilical cord. After the baby is put on the mother's chest, the cord is left attached for about one minute.

LEE: And that allows some of the blood from the placenta to continue going to the baby. And that increases the iron store in the baby.

NEIGHMOND: Allowing not only iron but also other nutrients⁹ to continue flowing from mother to baby even after delivery. Pediatrician and researcher Dr. Larry Gray with the Comer Children's Hospital at University of Chicago Medicine did a study that shows kangaroo mother care also seems to mediate¹ pain.

He looked at how babies respond to a heel prick¹⁰ to draw blood - a procedure to screen newborns for diseases that can be identified in the first day of life. Gray found babies cuddled with their mom in kangaroo care seemed to feel less pain.

LARRY GRAY: There was essentially¹¹ no evidence of the rise in heartrate to suggest that the baby felt pain, compared to the babies who had been swaddled and had that blood procedure in their bassinets sort of alone.

NEIGHMOND: The first place to document how this technique works with premature³ babies was in Bogota, Colombia. In poor areas where there was no access to incubators and other high-tech¹² equipment, preemies were often sent home with no expectation they would live. But doctors were surprised to see babies whose mothers carried them close, skin to skin, not only survived but thrived. Gray says one likely reason, so-called hidden regulators, which cement the attachment¹³ between mom and newborn.

GRAY: It's not just that the mother and the baby are being held together but that the mother in some ways is programming the baby - programming the baby's breathing, programming the baby's temperature, learning the baby's cues. And so there's some magic that happens.

NEIGHMOND: That magic can happen between a baby and a father too, he says, if there's skin-to-skin contact. Now, if mothers or babies are sick and need to be isolated¹⁴, Gray says just take any opportunity you can to hold your infant skin to skin. Even a little bit of kangaroo mother care, he says, can help. Patti Neighmond, NPR News.

1 mediate   

vi.调解，斡旋；vt.经调解解决；经斡旋促成

参考例句：

• The state must mediate the struggle for water resources.政府必须通过调解来解决对水资源的争夺。
• They may be able to mediate between parties with different interests.他们也许能在不同利益政党之间进行斡旋。

2 pouch   

n.小袋，小包，囊状袋；vt.装...入袋中，用袋运输；vi.用袋送信件

参考例句：

• He was going to make a tobacco pouch out of them. 他要用它们缝制一个烟草袋。
• The old man is always carrying a tobacco pouch with him.这老汉总是随身带着烟袋。

3 premature   

adj.比预期时间早的；不成熟的，仓促的

参考例句：

• It is yet premature to predict the possible outcome of the dialogue.预言这次对话可能有什么结果为时尚早。
• The premature baby is doing well.那个早产的婴儿很健康。

4 prematurely   

adv.过早地，贸然地

参考例句：

• She was born prematurely with poorly developed lungs. 她早产，肺部未发育健全。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• His hair was prematurely white, but his busy eyebrows were still jet-black. 他的头发已经白了，不过两道浓眉还是乌黑乌黑的。 来自辞典例句

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 practitioner   

n.实践者，从事者；(医生或律师等)开业者

参考例句：

• He is an unqualified practitioner of law.他是个无资格的律师。
• She was a medical practitioner before she entered politics.从政前她是个开业医生。

7 stabilize   

vt.（使）稳定，使稳固，使稳定平衡；vi.稳定

参考例句：

• They are eager to stabilize currencies.他们急于稳定货币。
• His blood pressure tended to stabilize.他的血压趋向稳定。

8 grimace   

v.做鬼脸，面部歪扭

参考例句：

• The boy stole a look at his father with grimace.那男孩扮着鬼脸偷看了他父亲一眼。
• Thomas made a grimace after he had tasted the wine.托马斯尝了那葡萄酒后做了个鬼脸。

9 nutrients   

n.（食品或化学品）营养物，营养品( nutrient的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a lack of essential nutrients 基本营养的缺乏
• Nutrients are absorbed into the bloodstream. 营养素被吸收进血液。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 prick   

v.刺伤，刺痛，刺孔；n.刺伤，刺痛

参考例句：

• He felt a sharp prick when he stepped on an upturned nail.当他踩在一个尖朝上的钉子上时，他感到剧烈的疼痛。
• He burst the balloon with a prick of the pin.他用针一戳，气球就爆了。

11 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

12 high-tech   

adj.高科技的

参考例句：

• The economy is in the upswing which makes high-tech services in more demand too.经济在蓬勃发展，这就使对高科技服务的需求量也在加大。
• The quest of a cure for disease with high-tech has never ceased. 人们希望运用高科技治疗疾病的追求从未停止过。

13 attachment   

n.附属物，附件；依恋；依附

参考例句：

• She has a great attachment to her sister.她十分依恋她的姐姐。
• She's on attachment to the Ministry of Defense.她现在隶属于国防部。

14 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。