A study by Bohnhorst et al. (2001) showed that Kangaroo Care did have some possibly dangerous effects, as shown below. They found that infants did have an increase in non-regular breathing patterns as well as bradycardia and hypoxemia.

However, this study did not place the infants on their parent's chests at a 60 degree angle, which may be partially responsible for the difference in breathing rates between this study and many other studies.

The recommendation that this study made was that unstable infants be monitored closely and body temperature in all infants should be monitored closely. Many other researches recommend Kangaroo care only when the infants are stable (Anderson 1995), but others say that ventilated infants can benefit from Kangaroo care as well, without detrimental effects (Ludington-Hoe and Swinth 1996).