Twenty million premature and underweight babies are born a year and four million of them die. Babies that survive often grow up with life-long illnesses. Babies’ lives can be saved by providing them with thermal regulation. However, traditional incubators are expensive and require electricity and are often only found in major urban hospitals. Other current solutions include wrapping hot water bottles around babies’ bodies, placing them over hot coals or placing them under light bulbs. These solutions cause many infants to die, even if they had a high chance of survival if they had been given proper medical treatment.

The Embrace Infant Warmer is an innovative and cost-effective technology that provides heat to an infant at a constant temperature, a key condition for survival. The warmer is designed to work in urban and rural healthcare centers as well as in people’s homes. It is carefully engineered and it maintains the baby’s temperature at a consistent 37° C for 4-6 hours with no electricity. The device is simple, easy to use and easy to keep clean. Furthermore, it has no moving parts, which minimizes the risk of failure. Finally, it ensures a close interaction between mother and child.

Thermal support for preterm newborns
The Embrace Infant Warmer uses a wax to provide thermal support to preterm born babies suffering from hypothermia. It allows for close mother-to-child interaction and works at all levels of the health-care infrastructure. It is an innovative, affordable and locally appropriate solution that costs less than 1% of traditional incubators and is the only product within this field in this price range.

The Embrace Infant Warmer aims to give all infants an equal chance for a healthy life.

Designed by
Linus Liang, Naganand Murty, Rahul Panicker and Jane Chen

Website
www.embracegloblal.org