Through the support of The Gerber Foundation, a team at Northwestern University team has developed a pair of soft, flexible wireless sensors that replace the tangle of wire-based sensors that currently monitor babies in hospitals' neonatal intensive care units (NICU) and pose a barrier to parent-baby cuddling and physical bonding.
Through the support of The Gerber Foundation, a team at Northwestern University team has developed a pair of soft, flexible wireless sensors that replace the tangle of wire-based sensors that currently monitor babies in hospitals' neonatal intensive care units (NICU) and pose a barrier to parent-baby cuddling and physical bonding.
"Wires are going up to the monitor, down to the baby, maybe going through holes in an incubator," Dr. Aaron Hamvas, co-author of the study, the Raymond and Hazel Speck Berry Professor of Neonatology at Feinberg, division head of neonatology at Lurie Children's said. "Nurses and parents try to get the babies all bundled, so they don't accidentally pull anything off them or out of the wall. It's very, very cumbersome and stressful. If the baby were totally unencumbered, it would be tremendously more efficient and less prone to problems."
The mass of wires that surround newborns in the NICU are often bigger than the babies themselves. Typically, five or six wires connect electrodes on each baby to monitors for breathing, blood pressure, blood oxygen, heartbeat and more. Although these wires ensure health and safety, they constrain the baby's movements and pose a major barrier to physical bonding during a critical period of development.
"We know that skin-to-skin contact is so important for newborns -- especially those who are sick or premature," Dr. Amy Paller, a pediatric dermatologist at Lurie Children's said. "It's been shown to decrease the risk of pulmonary complications, liver issues and infections. Yet, when you have wires everywhere and the baby is tethered to a bed, it's really hard to make skin-to-skin contact."
The device also could help fill in information gaps that exist during skin-to-skin contact. If physicians can continue to measure infants' vital signs while being held by their parents, they might learn more about just how critical this contact might be.
The team estimates that the wireless sensors will appear in American hospitals within the next two to three years. The team hopes to send sensors to tens of thousands of families in developing countries over the next year as part of an international effort.
