The mOm Essential Incubator: Neonatal Care for the Covid-19 Pandemic and Beyond

The NHS were already facing challenges with unnecessary admissions of term and normal weight babies to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated the issue as there is an increase in preterm births and birth complications due to infected mothers. Many of the babies that are being admitted to the NICUs are suffering from hypothermia, a condition that results in the infant's inability to regulate their own temperature. This condition does not require treatment in an expensive incubator, it can be treated in a much simpler and affordable incubator, the mOm Essential.

This greater number of admissions means that there is a higher cost to the NHS to treat the baby. Moreover, admitting babies to the NICU means that the baby is separated from the mother and there is overwhelming evidence that the separation of mother and baby so soon after birth can interrupt the normal bonding process. Preventing this separation is an ethical responsibility for healthcare professionals.

The mOm Essential is an incubator that is compact, portable, easy to set up and easy to use. The Essential can be assembled on any bed, cot or its own dedicated trolley. The mOm provides warmth and care for the newborn on the delivery ward itself, at a fraction of the price of a standard incubator. This cost-effective solution not only allows the mother to rest and receive her own postpartum care in the maternity unit, but also be comforted by the bedside care of their baby in an incubator.

The project objective is to conduct a Summative Study to confirm the observations from previous Formative studies that the mOm incubator is safe and easy to use. We will also need to conduct a randomised multi-site clinical trial which will demonstrate that the mOm incubator delivers the same standard of care as the incubators that are already being used in the hospital. The MHRA have granted us the opportunity of an accelerated pathway to market, through derogation, as they believe that there is a justified need for our device. This grant will help us accelerate the results to prove that our device is safe to use and can provide the same standard of care as existing incubators.