Nivea confirms its commitment to local communities through the donation of a special thermoregulating cradle for premature babies to the Vittore Buzzi Children’s Hospital in Milan, contributing to the completion and technological updating of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). This donation will allow for the total completion of the eight TIN department stations, which include incubators, monitors and ventilators. The initiative is part of the Kangaroo Skin to Skin Care Therapy project launched last year and carried out with the support of the Milan Children’s Hospital Association – Buzzi Onlus.
This commitment originates from the corporate ethical objective “Care beyond the skin” – taking care of people beyond the skin – of the German group Beiersdorf which has been operating in the cosmetics sector for 140 years with brands such as Nivea, Eucerin, La Praire with a 2021 turnover of over 7.6 billion euros and an operating income of 933 million and more than 20,000 employees worldwide. Through its CARE+ business strategy, the company pursues a multi-year investment program focused on competitive and sustainable growth by creating added value for consumers, society and the environment.
The Kangaroo Skin to Skin Care Therapy ProjectThe Kangaroo Skin to Skin Care Therapy Project was officially launched on November 17, 2021 and has involved 25 medical staff members, over 370 children and their parents to date, including: training for healthcare personnel in department with practical tests on Kangaroo Mother Care, massage and breastfeeding; training for parents by the hospital’s health personnel to educate them in the practice by providing basic tools and notions on therapy; purchase and distribution of equipment and technical supports for the NICU department such as monitors, breastfeeding and therapy armchairs with footrests, breastfeeding cushions and bands for therapeutic bags, temperature-regulating cradle; music therapy, thanks to new cradles capable of transmitting music and voices filtered with the right tones to premature babies in the incubator; dissemination of ad hoc information materials such as leaflets, guides and educational videos.
Kangaroo Mother Care Therapy is a practice supported by countless clinical studies, considered indispensable and necessary for the cognitive, neurological and psychophysical development of premature babies. In fact, there are many benefits offered by this therapy which takes its inspiration from what mother kangaroos do in nature – whose young are born extremely premature and unsuitable for independent life, but continue their development in a special maternal pouch (the pouch ) where they stay warm, protected and well nourished by milk: from the reduction of mortality to the improvement of respiration, temperature control and blood oxygenation, up to the rate of exclusive breastfeeding. But that is not all. The “baby carrier therapy” also has positive effects in terms of bonding as it favors the establishment of the special emotional bond that is created between a child and his mother (or his father). Finally, we should remember the benefits for mothers, who see this opportunity as one of the few concrete things they can do for their children after the trauma of premature birth.