Descriptive study of the clinical and nutritional profile and follow-up of premature babies in a Kangaroo Mother Care Program.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the profile of premature newborns participating in the Kangaroo Mother Care Program and the data from follow-up, and to verify possible correlations between these descriptive data.
METHODS: A descriptive study of 70 children, 5-34 months old, born between April 1999 and 2002, with gestational age of 32.5 weeks, birth weight 1,560 g, participating in the Kangaroo Mother Care Program (modified for Brazil) for at least 3 days. They were discharged from Kangaroo Mother Care weighing around 3,000 g and followed-up to 1 year.
RESULTS: Birth weight, gestational age and Apgar scores were determinants of better clinical, nutritional and motor outcomes as well as for enrollment on the Kangaroo Mother Care Program. During the second phase of the program 8.6% of the children were readmitted due to apnea. Exclusive breastfeeding started at a mean postconceptual age of 35.3 weeks and mean age postpartum of 18.6 days. By hospital discharge, children were at a mean age of 29 days, mean weight of 1,734 g and 85.7% were on exclusive breastfeeding. Predominant breastfeeding up to 6 months of age was observed in 60.3%. We initially identified motor disorders in 42.8% decreasing to 14.3% in the final review of records, including cerebral palsy (6.9%) and retarded motor development (6.9%).
CONCLUSIONS: Enrollment on the Kangaroo Mother Care Program, in common with data on breastfeeding and clinical outcomes were determined by gestational age and birth weight and were influenced by clinical conditions of each preterm infant. Kangaroo Mother Care proved itself a good breastfeeding instrument, but its role as an intervention for motor development must be better investigated.