Incubators and Open Care

The perfect environment to grow and thrive

As your acute care specialist, we ensure a safe, calming environment for developing lungs, brains, eyes, and ears. Our incubators create a personalized microclimate in the NICU, balancing thermoregulation, light, and sound for stable, nurturing newborn care.

What’s in a temperature?

Caregiver’s hand rests on baby’s head in the NICU

What happens if a baby gets too cold?

We lose heat through four different mechanisms: convection, radiation, conduction and evaporation. When a newborn’s temperature is too low, it causes stress and can exacerbate lung problems, leading to an increased need for ventilation. Metabolic acidosis increases and growth is affected, which can increase the length of hospital stay. Bilirubin is displaced from albumin binding sites, raising the risk of kernicterus. All these issues can lead to increased rates of morbidity and mortality. Minimising all four types of heat loss and preventing cold stress is therefore a necessity.

Baby holds onto caregiver’s finger while resting in the NICU

How does the body react to environmental temperatures?

The body attempts to maintain its temperature within narrow limits and, if exposed to thermal stresses, will utilise energy to achieve temperature stability. In day-to-day neonatal care, it’s not possible to measure heat transfer or energy expenditure in babies, so information from temperature measurements is relied on. A better overall picture of the thermal stresses experienced by a baby emerges if more than one body temperature is measured simultaneously.

Dr. Manuel Sánchez Luna talks about how cold stress affects premature babies and why thermoregulation is important

The consequences of heat loss

Even for adults, hypothermia can have very serious consequences. For very low birth weight infants, the consequences are much more serious. Dr. Manuel Sánchez Luna, MD, PhD of the University Hospital, Madrid, explains that even brief interruptions in warming therapy can be problematic.

How can we help a premature baby regulate body temperature?

Thermal image of a Draeger incubator during thermorugation therapy

Thermoregulation and ThermoMonitoring

In comparison with an adult, a premature baby is not provided with mechanisms like sweating and shivering and its metabolism is limited as well. The only response to cold stress is vasoconstriction, which is seen with ThermoMonitoring. Therefore, it should be the target of nursing care to keep the baby within its “thermo neutral” range in order to provide the best conditions for growth and maturity.

Prof. Dr. Egbert Herting talks about why a bigger focus should be put on thermoregulation in neonatal care

The relevance of thermoregulation

Warming therapy for premature babies is not a new topic – and yet comparatively speaking, little research has been done on this subject. Prof. Dr. Egbert Herting of the Clinic for Paediatric and Youth Medicine at the University Hospital in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, talks about the need for more attention to be given to this aspect of care.

Thermoregulation in Neonates: ThermoMonitoring - a step forward in neonatal intensive care booklet

A deeper look: read more on this topic

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Baby is being treated for jaundice in the NICU

Newborn jaundice treatment

Newborn jaundice treatment – from screening to phototherapy – has changed considerably over the past several years. Read about when and how to screen for it and the types of gentle and effective treatment that are available for neonates today. Also, get some useful take-away information to help families of jaundiced newborns through a time of anxiety and uncertainties.

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Neonatal ventilation and lung protection

Neonatal ventilation is an important part of the care you deliver in the NICU – but ventilation of preemies and neonates remains a substantial challenge for even the most experienced caregiver. Read about neonatal ventilation strategies and gain a deeper understanding on how to avoid damage to the immature respiratory systems and brains of premature babies.

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Nurse monitors the amount of light reaching a premature baby in the NICU

NICU lighting

When it comes to premature babies, light is a very complex matter. We need to avoid too much exposure and brightness and yet understand how the right amount of light at the right times can have a positive influence on development. Here, we discuss how creating a supportive light environment in the NICU, with the right care and the right technology, can truly benefit your littlest patients.

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Caregiver’s hand rests on premature baby in the NICU

Noise in the NICU

For babies in the NICU, noise presents a complex issue. Loud noises can be especially harmful to premature babies, sometimes causing hearing damage and developmental delays down the road. However, newborns respond extremely well to beneficial and comforting sounds. Here, we look at good versus bad noises and how to create a nurturing NICU noise environment.

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Developmental care in the NICU

NICUs can be tough environments – for babies, parents and caregivers. Pro-developmental and family-centred care concepts help to remove the factors that cause stress. Learn about how this promotes neural and physiological growth in premature babies – and also helps caregivers feel less stress, so the focus can stay on delivering the best possible care to the newborns.

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