Incubators are essential medical devices in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) with the purpose of regulating and maintaining the required humidity and temperature for neonates and preterm infants (PI): basic survival functions. Nonetheless, their optimal development must consider other fundamental factors such as positioning of the body, orientation in space, and other stimuli. The aim of this study was to compare the emotional visual impact variation caused by the common NICU incubator and a redesign proposal that takes into account all the factors previously mentioned. The emotional impact caused by these two devices was measured through a survey using PrEmo Tool©. The results showed that through the redesigned proposal, a higher positive response was achieved while decreasing its negative emotional impact. The proposal’s aim for improvement was achieved through the emulation of the mother's womb both in form and function.

Keywords:NICU Incubator; Preterm Infants; Kangaroo Position; Stimuli; Redesign; Emotional Impact

References

1. Gobierno de México: Secretaría de Salud.
2. The Global Goals for Sustainable Development.
3. World Health Organization.
4. Carayon P., et al. “A systematic review of mixed methods research on human factors and ergonomics in health care”. Applied Ergonomics 51 (2015): 291-321. 
5. National Center for Biotechnology Information: US National Library of Medicine. National Institutes of Health.
6. Ludington-Hoe S. Kangaroo Care: The Best You Can Do to Help Your Preterm Infant. Bantam Books, New York (1993).
7. Tandoi F., et al. “‘The Original Sound’: A new non-pharmacological approach to the postnatal stress management of preterm infants”. Journal of Maternal-Fetal and Neonatal Medicine 28 (2015): 1934-1938.
8. Fernández Zacarías F., et al. “Noise level in neonatal incubators: A comparative study of three models”. International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology 107 (2018): 150-154.
9. Emotion Studio.

Citation

Citation: Alan Taylor-Arthur., et al. “Redesigning the Common NICU Incubator: An Approach Through the Emulation of Factors Resembling the Mother’s Womb”. Acta Scientific Paediatrics 3.2 (2020): 07-09.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2020 Mir Alan Taylor-Arthur., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.