Design of an Intelligent Pillow with Maternal Temperature and Heartbeat Vibrations for Comforting NICU Infants

Objective: This paper aims at providing comfort to the neonates that suffer from pain due to medical interventions in the NICU, through the mediation of maternal temperature and heartbeat vibrations. Methods/Analysis: Here, a non-invasive solution, providing comfort through the mediation of a parent’s physiological features to the distressed neonate is adopted. This is done with the help of an intelligent pillow system embedded with wireless sensing and actuating functions. The neonates will show signs of comfortness when the maternal temperature and heartbeat vibrations are transferred via the pillow. Here, maternal temperature is added in addition to the existing heartbeat vibrations. Findings: Neonates in NICU undergo numerous interventions ranging from a simple diaper change to a major surgery. These neonates are subjected to pain and discomfort, especially during their initial weeks of lives. Pharmacological pain relief treatments are available, but it cannot be always preferred. Hence, a non-pharmacological technique is adopted using maternal temperature and heartbeat vibrations. This work was tested with a prototype of the recording and pillow unit, which produced the expected results of recording the mother’s temperature and heartbeat and transferring them as warmness and as vibrations respectively to the pillow. Application/Improvements: This work can be improved by developing the prototype as a market product and also adding other maternal physiological features like voice, body odour, etc.