NeoWarm: Kangaroo Mother Care with Continuous Temperature Tracking and Heating

Premature births are highly prevalent; world-wide, one in every ten births is premature. A common complication of premature birth is the inability of the newborns to regulate their own body temperature (hypothermia). Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) is an effective strategy to mitigate this problem but has challenges. Namely, KMC requires constant engagement from the caregiver in order to keep the baby warm and to monitor the baby's temperature every 4 hours. In this report we describe NeoWarm, a device designed to address these challenges via continuous integrated warming and automated temperature monitoring of the infant, both during KMC and when the caregiver takes a break. Pilot studies demonstrate the ability of the device to warm a simulated newborn from moderate hypothermia to ideal core temperatures within two hours.