Uganda: Heart-Warming Innovation Saves Mbale's Newborns

Mbale — In areas where electricity is unreliable or equipment is scarce, low-cost infant warmers could help keep low-weight newborns alive.



Embrace BabyWrap, a low-cost infant warmer designed specifically for low-resource settings where the electric grid cannot be relied on. The device is a sky-blue, insulated pouch that is able to keep a low birth-weight baby at the perfect temperature - 37 degrees Celsius - for up to six hours at a time.

It does so using the WarmPak, an innovative pouch of wax-like phase change material that absorbs heat quickly and then releases it over a long period of time.

It's warmed in a heater for 25 minutes then inserted into the back of the BabyWrap, where it gives off heat to warm the infant - with no electricity required.

Embrace Global is the non-profit organisation behind the BabyWrap and the rest of the 'Embrace Programme', which includes education on neonatal hypothermia and Kangaroo Mother Care, a technique whereby low weight babies are strapped to their mothers to keep them warm and help the bonding process; robust monitoring and evaluation to understand the programme's effect; and working with community members to provide locally-relevant complementary health education.

- allafrica.com