There are lots of great benefits, let me start with, it’s great for mums and dads. It relaxes the parent and the baby, thus increases bonding and decreasing anxiety. It helps regulate the temperature, heart rate and respiratory rate. It’s great to do before you breast feed as the baby tends to move toward the breast when they are ready to feed. After the baby breast feeds, the upright position helps with digestion. Increasing the milk supply is a big plus with mums doing kangaroo care. Right after the baby is delivered is a perfect time to start even if you are having a c-section. As long as baby is doing well and is stable, meaning no distress such as breathing difficulties.
The frequency and length of time varies, a healthy newborn can be several times a day anywhere from 30 min to a few hours. A NICU baby might start at once a day and then progress to twice a day as they get bigger and can tolerate it. The length of time is usually a minimum of 1 hour as the process of moving the baby is a lot of activity and up to 3 hrs, as long as the baby remains stable. So basically kangaroo care would start with a feeding and end prior to the next feed to do care such as diaper change and position infant for the next feed.