The Next Best Thing to ‘Kangaroo Care’

Newborns gain enormous benefits from skin-to-skin contact, also called “kangaroo care.” It helps them breathe better, regulates body temperature, promotes weight gain and even provides long-term advantages for cognitive and motor development.

University at Buffalo faculty member Munmun Rawat, a neonatologist at the John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital, is well aware of these benefits. Her son was born premature at 28 weeks, but as soon as he could be held, she and her husband kangarooed him 12 hours a day. He’s now a thriving toddler, hitting all his developmental milestones.

Some preemies, however, are just too fragile to hold. Knowing how much kangaroo care had helped her own child, Rawat couldn’t bear the thought of those babies missing out.

Determined to find a solution, Rawat had an epiphany: “If we can’t bring baby to the mother, why not bring mother to the baby?” Working with students and faculty in UB’s Department of Biomedical Engineering, she developed an incubator mattress that mimics the sounds, touch and even smells of mom and dad.

The team created a necklace made of sensors that gathers data about the parents’ breathing patterns. That data is programmed into the mattress, which then inflates and deflates accordingly. Another mechanical pump replicates the vibration of their heartbeats. A small, fabric doll that the parents sleep with gathers their bodily scents.

The team has developed a prototype for the mattress and is now at work on a technology disclosure.

“Of course, the best thing is for the parents to be in direct physical contact with their baby,” says Rawat. “But if that’s not possible, we are hoping this will be the very next best thing.”