Caregaroo
Caregaroo is a care-system for preterm born babies.
With Caregaroo, parents can practice the Kangaroo Mother Care with their babies and monitor them at the same time. It is suitable to be used both at the hospital, to reduce the use of incubators, and at home, during the follow-up period.
On a worldwide level, 1 on 10 children is born before of the standard 9th pregnancy month; this brings some important difficulties to the baby and the ones who are taking care of them.
Since it is not in our power to prevent this phenomenon, we focused on the various therapies used during the period of follow-up, expecially on the benefits of the Kangaroo Mother Care.
The phase of analysis, supported by the interviews to some specialists, led us to the concept, having these main points: skin-to-skin practice, posture, portability and monitoring. Both the baby and their parents’ necessities were constantly considered.
The final product is Caregaroo, a set composed of a T-shirt, under which to place the baby; over the T-shirt will be worn a band, necessary to more firmly support the baby (especially their head) and to monitor their vital parameters, i.e. temperature, heartbeat and breathing.
Parents will easily have access to these data through a watch, which will advise them of any anomalies.
Caregaroo gives moms and dads the possibility to monitor their baby also when they are at home: this can allow an earlier hospital dismissal.
Moreover, it also permits a more continuous care, as the baby will be able to keep the skin-to-skin contact also when their parents have to do small everyday duties. A long-term contact is actually fundamental for the effectiveness of this care method, though not always easy to achieve with our standard busy life.
