This paper critically examines the literature and determines if there is adequate evidence of the benefits and safety of
kangaroo care. Kangaroo care is the practice of holding a
premature infant, skin to skin, often between the mother's breasts, to provide close human contact between the parent and the infant. It
explains that the practice of kangaroo care has been gaining acceptance since it was first introduced in 1983. It further explains that the name 'kangaroo care' was derived from the similarities that it bears to marsupial caregiving in which the infant kangaroo, which is always born prematurely, is guided into the maternal pouch.