COCOON
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Co-designing and Optimising Kangaroo Mother Care in the NHS
IRAS ID
353555
Contact name
Hilary Wong
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 11 months, 30 days
Research summary
The World Health Organisation recommends “Kangaroo Mother Care” (KMC) for babies born early. This involves parents holding their baby skin-to-skin for 8+ hours a day, feeding them breast milk, and continuing this care at home. KMC can improve breastfeeding for babies born early, but it is not widely used in the UK.
This study will carry out early research to develop ways to help families and NHS staff use KMC more often, especially for babies born ‘late preterm’ (between 34 and 36 weeks of pregnancy). These approaches could later be tested in a larger national study.
Sub-study 1 will explore people’s experiences of KMC. We will interview 20–30 families of late preterm babies and 20–30 NHS staff working in maternity and neonatal wards. We will also run online surveys to gather views from more parents and staff. This will help us understand what makes KMC easier or harder to do, and what support may help.
Sub-study 2 will develop a mobile app for parents to record KMC practices. This will allow us to measure whether any strategies we develop are effective in a future trial. Up to 20 parents will test early versions of the app so we can improve it. Another 15 families will test the final version and tell us how easy it is to use. We will also interview parents to explore whether any app features (e.g. reminders) can help increase KMC practices. This app is not a medical device.
Sub-study 3 will bring together findings from the earlier studies. We will hold four workshops, each with 10 parents and/or 10 NHS staff, to design practical ways to increase KMC in NHS hospitals, using a method called Experience Based Co-Design.
Parents and charities helped shape the project and will continue to be involved to ensure the research is relevant and inclusive.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Leeds East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
26/YH/0112
Date of REC Opinion
29 May 2026
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion