Rock a bye baby, on the incubator, high tech devices make caring for you greater.
today’s show is about some of the youngest and littlest among us, and a device that can help them thrive.
Doctors often advise new parents to do a lot of what’s sometimes called “kangaroo time” with their newborns.
The parent gives the baby skin to skin contact, while underneath a robe or blanket.
It helps keep the baby warm and comfortable, and regulates their breathing and heart rate.
This is especially important for babies born ahead of schedule, because if they get stressed and their breathing is more shallow, they may not take in enough oxygen, which – well, they need that oxygen, don’t they?
Parents and caregivers can give a lot of that skin to skin time, but for the times they can’t a device called Calmer may be able to step in.
It’s a therapeutic bed, developed by a team at the University of British Columbia led by Drs. Liisa Holsti and Karon Maclean.
When a baby is placed on the bed, inside a hospital incubator, the bed rises and falls to simulate the movement of a parent’s breathing.
The babies get the oxygen they need, and that will help parents breathe a sigh of relief.
Sometimes when one door closes, another opens.
Other times, a door closes and becomes a game table.
Like this custom made door that can swing down and turn into a ping-pong table! Only €12600.
Probably don’t set this door up next to a staircase, though.
Pulsating bed could prevent brain damage in premature babies (New Atlas)
Ping Pong Door (Nag on the Lake)
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Photo: premature baby resting on Calmer in the NICU at BC Children’s Hospital. Photo credit: Liisa Holsti