astronomy

Nils Bergman

Nils Bergman is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Nils Bergman rather than just read about it. In short: Nils Bergman (23 March 1955) is a Swedish specialist in perinatal neuroscience and a promoter of skin-to-skin contact between a mother and newborn. Background Bergman was born in Sweden but grew up in Zimbabwe, and then moved to Cape Town, South Africa, where he received his medical degree at the University of Cape Town, followed by a Masters in Public Health at the University of the Western Cape and a doctoral diss…

Key takeaways

Nils Bergman belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Nils Bergman to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Nils Bergman from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Nils Bergman (23 March 1955) is a Swedish specialist in perinatal neuroscience and a promoter of skin-to-skin contact between a mother and newborn.

Background Bergman was born in Sweden but grew up in Zimbabwe, and then moved to Cape Town, South Africa, where he received his medical degree at the University of Cape Town, followed by a Masters in Public Health at the University of the Western Cape and a doctoral dissertation on scorpion stings. He returned to Zimbabwe in the 1980s as a mission doctor, and| started practising what is now known as Kangaroo Mother Care on babies born prematurely.

Work In lieu of incubators in the remote Manama Mission hospital, Bergman as Medical Superintendent and District Medical Officer together with Midwife Agneta Jurisoo started practicing skin to skin contact between a mother and premature child upon birth. He found that this method showed a significant increase of their survival, with survival rates increasing from 10% to 50% in very low birth weight babies (1000g to 1500g). This suggested that what he called "Kangaroo Mother Care" stabilisation was better than an incubator. In 1995, Bergman brought it to South Africa and in 2000, it became the official policy for care of premature babies in the hospitals of the Western Cape province. Bergman contributed to the naming and formal description of Kangaroo Mother Care together with 30 other researchers, and the subsequent WHO guidelines. Since 2006 he has worked freelance, focusing on promoting and researching the use of skin-to-skin contact from birth, and on developing a better understanding of the neuroscience of birth, skin-to-skin, breastfeeding, bonding and secure attachment.

Professional involvement Bergman is the founder of the International Network of Kangaroo Mother Care (INK), and a member of the advisory board of La Leche League, South Africa, the Breastfeeding Association of SA, the International Lactation Consultants Association, Milk Matters (Human Milk Bank, Cape Town), and a Trustee of the South African Kangaroo Mother Care Foundation.

Published works Bergman N, Jurisoo A. The "kangaroo-method" for treating low birth weight babies in a developing country. Tropical Doctor, April 1994, 24: 57-60. Kirsten GF, Bergman NJ, Hann FM. Kangaroo Mother Care in the Nursery. Pediatric Clinics of North America, 2001 Vol 48(2) 443 - 454 Moore ER, Anderson GC, Bergman N, Dowswell T. Early skin-to-skin contact for mothers and their healthy newborn infants. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2012;5:CD003519. Bergman NJ. Neonatal stomach volume and physiology suggest feeding at 1-h intervals. Acta Paediatr 2013;102:773-777. Bergman NJ. Proposal for mechanisms of protection of supine sleep against sudden infant death syndrome: an integrated mechanism review. Pediatr Res 2014;doi: 10.1038/pr.2014.140. [Epub ahead of print]. Bergman N. The neuroscience of birth - and the case for zero separation. Curationis 2014;37:1-4. Bergman NJ, Linley LL, Fawcus SR. RCT of skin-to-skin contact from birth versus conventional incubator care for physiological stabilisation in 1200- and 2199-gram newborns. Acta Paediatrica 2004 Vol 93(6); 779-785 Aiano Cattaneo, Riccardo Davanzo, Nils Bergman Nathalie Charpak. Kangaroo mother care in low-income countries. Journal of Tropical Paediatrics 1998; 44: 279- 282. Hann M, Malan A, Kronson M, Bergman N, Huskisson R. Kangaroo Mother Care. South African Medical Journal, 1999 Vol 89; 37-40 Bigelow AE, Littlejohn M, Bergman N, McDonald C. The relation between early mother-infant skin-to-skin contact and later maternal sensitivity in South African mothers of low birth weight infants. Infant Mental Health Journal, 2010 Vol 31(3); 358-377 Morgan BE, Horn A, Bergman NJ. Should neonates sleep alone? Biological Psychiatry, 2011. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2011.06.018

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Nils Bergman

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Nils Bergman claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Nils Bergman before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Nils Bergman ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Nils Bergman

In research: Nils Bergman appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Nils Bergman in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Nils Bergman is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1955 births, Living people, Scientists from Uppsala, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Nils Bergman outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Nils Bergman in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Nils Bergman means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Nils Bergman out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Nils Bergman in simple terms?

Nils Bergman (23 March 1955) is a Swedish specialist in perinatal neuroscience and a promoter of skin-to-skin contact between a mother and newborn. Background Bergman was born in Sweden but grew up in Zimbabwe, and then moved to Cape Town, South Africa, where he received his medical degree at the U…

Why does Nils Bergman matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Nils Bergman?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Nils Bergman.