This boy helped his newborn brothers get closer to his father. That’s what he did
After a touching image of a young boy assisting his father in providing skin-to-skin contact with preterm twins went viral, the boy gained popularity online.
The touching photo was posted to Facebook and showed a little kid holding his sibling tightly while they were wrapped in bedding at Hvidovre Hospital in Copenhagen, Denmark, while his father was doing the same for the other child.
The article, written by the South African-based NINO Birth organization, noted that keeping infants skin-to-skin during recovery is a standard practice in Sweden. It has now received more than 17,000 shares and 900 comments.
Skin-to-skin contact is not “new,” but Sweden certainly sets the standard for making this form of care family-friendly, even for very small infants.
‘I love this picture of big brother helping his dad care for the twins!’
According to the post on the page for “Neuroscience for Improved Neonatal Outcomes,” Uppsala, Sweden, has been home to “revolutionary and innovative practices.” Instead of being placed in the incubator, 700-gram babies can be placed skin-to-skin on their parents’ chests.
A Swedish professor named Uwe Ewald visited the Danish hospital Hvidovre to discuss his ground-breaking method of removing even the tiniest preterm infants from incubators and placing them as close to their parents as possible.
Premature infants that are born three months early are placed on their parents’ chests rather than being left alone in an incubator.
The parent’s chest manages the temperature better than an incubator, according to Uwe Ewald. Skin-to-skin contact improves a baby’s ability to breathe.
‘The child becomes more calm and gains weight faster. Research shows that parents bacterial flora – compared with hospital bacteria – reduces the risk of serious infections in these delicate children.’
To provide the most skin coverage, the parent or relative is topless and the infant simply wears a nappy.
Many parents thought that this is a strategy that should be tried, as evidenced by the comments on the image.
The picture was initially published on Facebook by a Danish family advocacy organization known as Foraeldre og Fdsel, but it has since been brought back into the public eye after having its caption translated into English.
It has now gained 35,000 likes and 25,000 shares.
