Interview with Dr. Nils Bergman, MD, MPH

Friday November, 28 2008

Dr. Nils Bergman traveled from Cape Town, South Africa to Sacramento, California, to present a one-day conference on "Neurophysiology of the Newborn." Dr. Bergman graciously gave KVMR broadcaster and lactation consultant Arly Helm an interview after the conference.

Dr. Bergman has been world renown since 1995 for introducing and promoting the concept of Kangaroo Mother Care for premature babies. With a resultant five-fold increase in very low birthweight infant survival in his hospital, he now looks at what skin-to-skin contact does for well newborns.

From Dr. Bergman's website, http://www.kangaroomothercare.com:
"Dr Bergman's passion starts with "skin-to-skin contact", his preferred term for what many people call Kangaroo Care. Dr Bergman regards maternal-infant skin-to-skin contact as a first and critical intervention in perinatology, with broad public health impacts and implications. His expertise extends to developmental neuroscience, breastfeeding, neonatology and obstetrics. He takes an integrated view of these areas, regarding skin-to-skin contact as the neurological pre-requisite to successful breastfeeding, with neonatal and obstetric care re-orienting its purpose to maintaining the integrity of the mother-infant dyad. This holistic view he terms "Kangaroo Mother Care". He was however previously a hospital manager, and is currently a Public Health Physician, and sees these issues in the broader context of hospitals, health systems and society as whole."