[The "Kangaroo" ward]

The "Kangaroo mother" is a symbol of gentle care for the newborn in continuous closeness with his/her mother. This concept was for the first time introduced to neonatal care in Columbia as a way of compensating for technical and personnel shortages. In France, the first Kangaroo ward was established in the academic hospital in Clamart, near Paris in 1987. This ward is designed for premature babies of gestational age of more than 31 weeks and with birth weight more than 1500 g as well as for newborns with non-life threatening conditions and not requiring intensive care. Handling the child, skin-to-skin contact and breast-feeding are not treated as therapeutic means but as important elements of the relationship between the child and his/her parents. The author discusses in detail the organisation of care in the Kangaroo ward and analyses its advantages and disadvantages for both parents and the medical staff. Apart from providing continuous contact between the mother and the child, the important advantages of this system of care are: less maternal anxiety, well-being of the child, more efficient participation of mothers in caring for their children. The role of the paediatrician in perinatal care is stressed and the principles of neonatal organisation are discussed.