What It Is
Kangaroo Care Day® (May 15) is a global awareness initiative founded in 2011 to promote safe, evidence-based Skin-to-Skin (Kangaroo) Care across hospital and community settings.
Participation is planned and executed in-house.
Participation is voluntary, scalable, and adaptable to hospital systems.
Privacy & Compliance
Participation does not require:
- Sharing photographs
- Posting on social media
- Submitting protected health information
- Reporting patient-level data
Hospitals maintain full control over:
- Internal communications
- External communications
- Data reporting decisions
All participation models are designed to respect HIPAA and institutional governance.
Participation Options
Hospitals may choose the model that best aligns with their internal policies:
1. Internal Celebration Only
Plan and implement activities within your unit, hospital, or system.
No registration is required. Here are some ideas.
If sharing publicly, institutions may use the hashtags #KangarooCareDay and #KangarooCare at their discretion.
2. Optional Team Registration
Register here to receive more information.
3. Hybrid Model
Internal tracking with optional anonymous global recognition.
Participation can be adapted to fit hospital policy.
2026 Theme
Stillness Is Strength
Free Resources
The 2026 Free Awareness files available for download and print include:
- Printable posters
- Educational materials
- Internal announcement templates
- Optional tracking templates
- Press Release templates
If you downloaded files from the Resources page in the past, you will receive an email when those files are updated and become available.
What Is a Kangaroo-a-thon?
A Kangaroo-a-thon is an optional awareness framework in which hospitals track cumulative Skin-to-Skin (Kangaroo) Care time over a defined period.
It is a structured initiative in which hospital teams may:
- Encourage Skin-to-Skin (Kangaroo) Care
- Track individual or cumulative holding hours
- Reinforce safe positioning practices
- Recognize families and staff
It is not a competition and does not require incentives or prizes.
Hospitals may determine their own internal recognition practices in accordance with institutional policy.
It is not a fundraiser.
It does not require public reporting.
Cumulative holding hours may be tracked internally using existing hospital systems or, if preferred, through The Zaky® App platform.
Only cumulative, anonymized totals are reflected. No patient identifiers or protected health information are shared.
Leadership Briefing
Mother-baby, neonatal and pediatric units management, quality departments, and communications teams may request a concise overview or schedule a virtual informational session. Contact us or email info@kangaroo.care