Mrs. Jane David

I would like to begin by introducing myself, my name is Jane Davis. I’m from the South of England. I have lived in Bogotá for 1 year and a half with my Colombian husband and I am now The proud mother of a 5 month old son.

I am going to speak for 5 minutes about my experience of the Kangaroo mother care Programme. I will begin with the facts. On the 23^rd June 1998 my son was born by cesarea section at 32 weeks of gestational Age. He was put straight into an incubator and intoa ventilator, as he was unable to breathe alone. He weighed 1750 grams. He Stayed in the incubator for six weeks, in the intensive care unit for 2 weeks, and it was while in intermediate care that we began the interhospital Kangaroo mother care adaptation for 6 weeks I went to the hospital every day. I started at 9:00am by extracting breast milk manually with was then fed to my son primerally by tale and later by bottle.

I then went to collect my son (who was by the way, dependent on oxygen until he was 3 Months old). He travelled in my Kangaroo pouch to the Kangaroo Mother Care room in the hospital where we received 2 weeks of training in the Kangaroo Mother care Technique. When my son’s health had established and satisfactory method of feeding him had been Successed we were discharged, even though he was still depend on oxygen. A large tank of oxygen was installed at home and small tank was used for travelling. On the day of discharge he weighed 20500 grams and was a Kangaroo baby for only Week - Although he was on oxygen at home for a total of 6 weeks.

So those are the facts now to my opinion.

To have your baby in an incubator in a hospital is not a pleasant experience. Some words spring to mind, Fear, frustration, helplessness, worry, depression, impotent, stress, sashes. The instinct of a mother to hold and care for her new baby is primordial and primitive and an overwhelmingly powerful feeling. The feeling of relief it have my baby at home was stonger than the stress. The feeling of Joy to have my baby near me was stronger than the worry I felt. I felt more in control with my baby at home.

In my opinion my stress levels were higher when my baby was in hospital and here are the reasons why.

1. I had a 2 hour journey by bus, each way every day.
2. The manual extraction of milk is not easy and is at times exhausting.
3. To see your baby in an incubator is heart breaking.
4. To know that your baby is not receiving enough love and loving tactile stimulus is heartbreaking.
5. I spert an average of 5 hours in the hospital daily and 3-4 travelling. This was not often cold, the chairs uncomfortable, I took sandwiches for lunch, my cesarean scar was painful the public toilets were few and far a way.

Now to finish off:

My opinion of the interhospital and ambulatory Kangaroo Mother Care Programme is very high. I’m full of a praise for the technique the staff and the way the programme is organized.

And all the proof I need is to look at my beautiful son and see how well he is.