I feel as excited as a groupie for the Beatles! Dr. Nils Bergman, the medical doctor who popularized kangaroo mother care in a maternity ward in South Africa, is coming to Salt Lake for the Utah Breastfeeding Coalition on March 12-13.. You can read more about the conference here http://perinatalprofessionals.org/

Dr. Bergman has taught that the “mother is the baby’s habitat.” The mother is the place for the baby to be. In his hospital, he has put premature babies on the mother’s chest instead of incubators and had great results. Their vital signs stabilize on the mothers’ bodies better than when in incubators. Mothers and babies belong together, and they will be healthier if they stay together. Psychological and physical effects occur when mothers and babies are separated. In other words, mothers are meant to be trees of life to their babies. He advocates for just letting babies and moms be together right after birth, instead of doing all the traditional medical procedures of weighing and bathing.  He teaches that skin to skin contact, meaning baby’s skin touching mom’s skin, helps all babies, premature or full-term.

I love that he teaches that newborns are intelligent, not just blobs as some people have thought.