Maternal physical and psychological benefits of Kangaroo Mother Care in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: A scoping review protocol

Abstract

Abstract Objective: This scoping review aims to map the available evidence of Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) and the known physical and psychological benefits for the mother, giving insight into the available published and unpublished literature alongside any available grey literature. In addition, to provide ways to inform mothers in low-income countries (LIC) and culturally and linguistic diverse background (CALD) communities of these benefits. Introduction: The range of benefits KMC provides to the newborns participating are well known, with many extensive studies completed since the 1970s illustrating both short and long-term physical, psychological and social benefits. This review is to highlight and focus on the studies emphasising the evidence-based benefits of KMC for the newborn's biological mother. Inclusion criteria: When considering participants of these studies or other reviews, the mother of child-bearing age must be biologically related to the infant currently admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). The concept of the review is to identify and document any physical and psychological benefits of KMC for the mother. For the context of this review, the newborns must be admitted in a NICU at the time of the study. Method: Five databases will be used for the search of this review, including CINAHL, EMBASE, Medline, MIDIRS and Scopus, where all papers will be accepted that are available with a translation in the English language and written after the 1970s. To further increase the result pool for the study, reference lists will be screened alongside search engines like Google and Google Scholar to find unpublished papers and grey literature