Research > Kangaroo Care Studies > About the Project

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About the Project

The Kangaroo Care Study Project is funded by the following five grants:

  • 2000-2005 Ludington, S. “Effect of Skin Contact on Electrophysiologic Sleep in Preterm Infants” NIH-NINR #1R01-NR-04926-01A1 ($1,118,000)
  • 2003-2004 Ludington, S. “Antenatal Education with High Risk Mothers to Support Provision of Mothers' Own Milk” Regents Infrastructure Grant ($6,000)
  • 2003-2004 Ludington, S. “Light-Reducing Capabilities of Homemade and Commercial Incubator Covers” Ohio Nurses Foundation ($1,000)
  • 2003 Ludington, S. “Kangaroo Care to Blunt Pain in Premature Infants” NIH-NINR R03-NR-008587-02 ($153,000)
  • 2004 Ludington, S. “Development of Sleep Organization in Preterm Infants” NIH-NINR, RO1-NR-004926, 7/1/2004, Review 10/21/2004 ($2,134,253)

About the Principal Investigator

Susan M. Ludington, PhD, CNM, FAAN is a nurse-midwife who has focused on the health of infants for over thirty years. She moved from BS to MS to Ph.D. non-stop, completing her first master's thesis at the University of California at San Francisco in 1973 and then the Ph.D. in Nursing with a minor in Child Development and Psychology three years later. While in her B.S. program's clinical, she noticed that expectant mothers would pat their bellies and talk to their fetuses while waiting for OB checks, and this observation incited an interest in the early learning experiences of infants and how the infant's sensory environment influenced the infant's development. Dr. Ludington became widely known for her work in infant stimulation, research that yielded black and white geometric patterns in hospital wall paper, infant crib and stroller materials, and in infant toys. More than 32 newborn units in hospitals in the U.S. are decorated in the black and white motif, using panda bears and penguins and whales to convey the appropriate color scheme for newborns. Dr. Ludington started the Infant Development and Education Association of America, which certified more than 352 early infant educators. The success of the early infant development program was repeated with her consumer book, How to Have A Smarter Baby, which was first published in 1985 and is still available at bookstores today.

In 1987, upon an invitation from the Minister of Health of the nation of Colombia, Dr. Ludington shared early infant development techniques in exchange for learning about a new tactile intervention for preterm infants. That tactile intervention was called Kangaroo Care. Dr. Ludington became so enthusiastic about this special form of continuous touch that she brought the idea back to America and was the first U.S. researcher to start a program of Kangaroo Care research in the U.S. She was also the first researcher to be funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Center for Nursing Research, to test the safety and efficacy of Kangaroo Care with continuing care preterms. The big question then, in 1988, is the same one posed today: Will the infant get cold when in Kangaroo Care? But in 2003, that question was posed only for extremely low birth weight infants who are held in Kangaroo Care when weighing 600 grams or so. Larger infants do not lose body heat at all during Kangaroo Care.

Since 1988, Dr. Ludington has completed an extensive program of Kangaroo Care research, examining the safety and effects with preterm and low birth weight infants undergoing continuing care, mechanical ventilation, nasal CPAP, and phototherapy. She has tested Kangaroo Care's use as a treatment to improve cardiopulmonary stability, decrease apnea and bradycardia frequency, improve sleep, reduce agitation/irritability, reduce pain, and enhance maternal and paternal attachment/interaction with the infant. She has also measured Kangaroo Care's effects on maternal stress.

Dr. Ludington is currently the Carl W. and Margaret Davis Walter Professor of Pediatric Nursing at Case Western Reserve University, where she is involved with studies documenting Kangaroo Care's effects on preterm infant sleep cycling, breastfeeding proficiency, and pain reduction with heel stick and cardiac surgery. Her consumer book on Kangaroo Care, entitled Kangaroo Care: The Best You Can Do for Your Preterm Infant, was helpful in increasing Kangaroo Care's use throughout the United States, as documented in the national survey of all NICUs in the United States (MCN January 2003). Dr. Ludington serves as one of two United States representatives of Kangaroo Care to the World Health Organization's International Network of Kangaroo Care, making her a leading "Kan-GURU."