A Gentle, Trauma-Informed Book About Closeness and Skin-to-Skin (Kangaroo) Care
When Your Heart Touches Mine: The Power of Closeness was created to give families and care teams a shared, accessible understanding of why closeness matters — whether a baby is healthy, premature, fragile, or under medical care, from birth through hospitalization, discharge, and beyond.
Why This Book Was Created
All newborns deserve to feel held, safe, protected, and connected from the very beginning.
Across birth, postpartum care, home birth, mother-baby units, NICUs, PICUs, pediatric units, hospitalization, and the transition home, Skin-to-Skin (Kangaroo) Care may be encouraged — yet the deeper understanding of why closeness matters is often inconsistent, rushed, fragmented, or lost entirely.
Families are frequently told what to do without fully understanding:
- why holding matters,
- how connection supports regulation and healing,
- or how their presence becomes part of care itself.
This book was created to help fill that gap.
It provides families, caregivers, and care teams with a shared language for closeness, co-regulation, emotional safety, connection, and Skin-to-Skin (Kangaroo) Care in a format that is gentle, accessible, and easy to revisit over time.
A Shared Starting Point for Families and Care Teams
This book is not a clinical guideline.
It does not replace hospital policy, clinical judgment, individualized care, or hands-on education from the care team.
It was created to support those conversations.
When shared early, the book provides a gentle foundation before or alongside bedside teaching, orientation, discharge preparation, parent support conversations, or family-centered care initiatives.
It introduces the meaning and science of Skin-to-Skin (Kangaroo) Care in a warm, accessible, and non-overwhelming way — helping families and clinicians begin from a place of shared understanding instead of starting every conversation from zero.
The book was intentionally designed to be brief, approachable, and easy to integrate into real workflows without adding burden to families or care teams.
It supports more consistent family education, trauma-informed communication, and continuity of understanding across the continuum of care.
Grounded in Science. Written with Tenderness.
This book brings together:
- lived kangaroo care experience,
- trauma-informed care,
- developmental and neuroprotective care principles, ergonomics and safety engineering,
- family-integrated care, and the evidence supporting closeness and Skin-to-Skin (Kangaroo) Care.
It was written by Yamile C. Jackson, PhD, PE, PMP — ergonomics, human factors, and safety engineer; founder of Kangaroo Care Day®; creator of The Zaky®; published author; and mother of Zachary, who was born prematurely and inspired her lifelong mission to advance safe closeness for babies and families.
Today, the book is being used by families, clinicians, hospitals, educators, and organizations supporting trauma-informed and family-integrated care initiatives around the world.
The book was created to support diverse families, care environments, cultures, and care teams globally.
What the book is
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Brief and accessible
Written in a warm, supportive voice that is easy to read, share, revisit, and integrate into real care environments.
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For families and care teams
Created to support family education, bedside teaching, staff reflection, and shared understanding across the continuum of care.
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Evidence-Informed and Trauma-Informed
Grounded in science. Guided by trauma-informed principles. Written with tenderness, clarity, and emotional safety in mind.
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Not a clinical guideline
A supportive educational resource that complements — but does not replace — hospital policies, individualized care, clinical judgment, or hands-on teaching.
One book. Multiple points of impact.
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Families
A gentle introduction to closeness, connection, emotional safety, and Skin-to-Skin (Kangaroo) Care — helping families understand the meaning and science of holding without feeling overwhelmed.
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Clinicians
An accessible tool for introducing the meaning and science of Skin-to-Skin (Kangaroo) Care in a way that is easy to teach, easy to share, and easy to revisit — supporting onboarding, family education, parent confidence, and participation from admission through discharge.
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Birth Workers, Volunteers, and Educators
A warm and practical resource for introducing closeness, voice, touch, and connection from birth and beyond.
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Organizations or Hospitals
A scalable trauma-informed education and communication resource created to support:
- family engagement,
- bedside education,
- discharge preparation,
- parent support programs,
- staff reflection,
- volunteer programs,
- donor initiatives,
- more consistent family communication,
- continuity across care settings,
- and family-centered care efforts with compassion, consistency, and clarity.
Inside the Book
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A Poem Born from Holding Her Son
The book begins with a heartfelt poem inspired by what holding her son skin-to-skin came to mean to the author: safety, closeness, regulation, healing, and love.
It gives clinicians a window into the parent experience while giving families words they may quietly read aloud during moments of holding and connection — when the baby is secure and the parent or caregiver can hold the book safely.
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Reflection Pages
Readers are invited to pause, write, draw, journal, or capture memories of closeness in their own way and at their own pace.
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A Shared Foundation for Care
The book includes a concise, accessible introduction to Skin-to-Skin (Kangaroo) Care — creating shared understanding for everyone supporting babies and families.
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Designed for Busy Moments
The book can be read in less than 30 minutes and revisited often, making it practical for bedside education, early orientation, discharge conversations, staff reflection, and family support.
Editions Available
Available in English and Spanish, in both softcover and hardcover, When Your Heart Touches Mine is an 8.5 × 8.5-inch, 64-page, full-color illustrated book created to support families, clinicians, hospitals, birth workers, parent organizations, and communities serving diverse families.
Designed for Real Care Environments
Many hospitals, clinicians, organizations, and parent programs use this book as part of:
- Family welcome packages
- Admission education
- Mother-baby and NICU family education
- Home birth and postpartum support
- PICU and pediatric family support
- Discharge and transition-home conversations
- Parent support and peer-support programs
- Staff onboarding and reflection
- Volunteer education
- Trauma-informed and neuroprotective care initiatives
- Family-integrated care programs
- Kangaroo Care Day® celebrations
- Donor and family support initiatives
A Shared System for Safe, Sustainable Closeness
When Your Heart Touches Mine: The Power of Closeness is part of a broader ecosystem created to make Skin-to-Skin (Kangaroo) Care safer, more understood, more measurable, and more sustainable.
WHY closeness matters: The book "When Your Heart Touches Mine"
HOW to support safer Skin-to-Skin (Kangaroo) Care: The Zaky ZAK®
TRACK and sustain practice: The Zaky® APP
ADVANCE global awareness and safe implementation: Kangaroo Care Day (May 15)
Together, these resources support families, clinicians, hospitals, and organizations in building safer, more connected, more measurable, and more trauma-informed care environments.
From understanding… to practice… to sustainability.
A Note from the Author
I wrote this book because all newborns deserve to feel held, safe, connected, and loved from the very beginning — and because families and care teams deserve a simple, shared way to understand why closeness matters.
When I gave birth to Zachary prematurely in 2001, he weighed less than two pounds. In the NICU, I learned that holding him skin-to-skin was not simply comfort. It was regulation. It was protection. It was healing. During a hospital flood that left his life-support equipment without power, closeness also became part of his survival.
That experience shaped my life’s work.
For more than two decades, I have worked to make Skin-to-Skin (Kangaroo) Care safer, better understood, more measurable, and more sustainable through Kangaroo Care Day®, The Zaky®, educational initiatives, and now this book.
This book was created to help families and care teams begin with a shared understanding when time, energy, and teaching moments are limited.
My hope is that this book helps families and care teams begin from a place of connection, understanding, and humanity — especially during moments that feel fragile, uncertain, or overwhelming.
— Yamile C. Jackson, PhD, PE, PMP
Founder, Kangaroo Care Day® MAY 15
CEO, Nurtured by Design®
Creator of The Zaky®