Kangaroo Mother Care: A Bibliometric Scoping Analysis of Global Literature and Implications for Occupational Therapy

Kangaroo mother care (KMC) has gained increasing attention for its role in improving the health and survival of preterm infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). We performed a bibliometric analysis of KMC literature to understand whether the topic has been generating interest in the global research community. We used VOSviewer software for a bibliometric analysis of KMC literature (1993–2024) using the Web of Science database. The emerged research direction created a tightly linked word cluster around three (3) main words, kangaroo mother care, preterm infants, and breastfeeding. The results suggest that the research effort is increasingly focused on identifying and refining an intervention strategy approach to maximize the benefits of KMC for preterm infants, particularly by examining the relationship between skin-to-skin contact and breastfeeding.