"When Ali Andrew Li was born on Jan.  he was gently placed on his mothers chest where doctors cleaned and examined him and covered him with a warm blanket. I just loved it his mother Salma Shabaik a family physician who lives in Los Angeles says. It was really nice to have the baby right there beneath my eyes where I could feel him touch him kiss him. That was different than the birth of her son Elias two years ago he was whisked away to a bassinet to be examined. And unlike Elias who cried a lot after delivery Shabaik says Ali stopped crying within seconds after being placed on her chest. Kangaroo mother care has been widely used worldwide to care for premature babies and its gaining popularity in caring for healthy full term babies like Ali as well. It is as it sounds Like a kangaroos pouch mothers hold their naked newborns on their bare chest for the first few hours of life. At Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center https where Ali was born the technique is routinely practiced for healthy mothers and newborns. The baby gets to know their mother immediately says Dr. Larry Gray http behavioral and developmental pediatrician at Comer Childrens Hospital University of Chicago Medicine. The baby gets landed in a trusting environment he says reassuring them that life outside the womb can also be soft comfortable and warm. Morgan Walker for NPR  The benefits are many according to Dr. Lydia KyungMin Lee https an obgyn at UCLA. Not only is the baby happier she says but his or her vitals are more stable. Body temperature heart and breathing rate normalize more quickly. The close contact also allows the baby to be exposed to the same bacteria as the mother which can protect against allergies and infection in the future. Infants who receive kangaroo care breast feed more easily Lee says and their mothers tend to breast feed for longer periods of time which is all good. Article continues after this message from our sponsor Babies also seem to suffer less pain. Almost  years ago Gray studied how babies respond to a heel prick to draw blood a procedure that screens newborns for genetic disorders. He found httppediatrics.aappublications.orgcontente that when healthy newborns had kangaroo care there was less facial grimacing and crying suggesting pain compared to babies who had been swaddled and had the procedure in their bassinets sort of alone. preemies was Colombia in the s. There hospitals with no access to incubators and other equipment often sent home preemies with no expectation that they would live. But doctors  httppediatrics.aappublications.orgcontentewere surprised to see that babies whose mothers carried them close skin to skin not only survived but thrived. This was a serendipitous magical finding says Gray suggesting that skintoskin contact acted something like a natural incubator. Gray also points to the work of Myron Hofer httpprofiles.columbiapsychiatry.orgprofilemhofer a psychiatrist with Columbia University Medical Center who studies attachment between mother and infants. Hofer coined the term hidden regulators that pass between mother and baby. Its not just that mother and baby are together Gray says but also that the mother is in some way programming the baby the breathing temperature and heart rate. That magic can also happen between baby and father too says Gray if theres skintoskin contact. And if mothers or babies are very sick and have to be isolated Gray suggests mothers take any opportunity to hold their infant skin to skin. Even a little bit of kangaroo contact he says can be beneficial."