Description
Globally 2.3 million children died in the first 20 days of life in 2022 (World Health Organisation (WHO) 2024). Though in India the neonatal mortality has reduced from 26 per 1,000 live births in 2014 to 20 per 1,000 live births in 2020 (UNICEF 2023), this is still significantly higher than the UK rate of 2.7 deaths per 1,000 live births (2021).The WHO states that warmth, breastfeeding support and basic care could reduce this and lists care where the baby is carried by the mother with skin-to-skin contact and frequent breastfeeding, as one of the most feasible and cost-effective interventions to improve outcomes in preterm infants (WHO 2022).
The Snugby (snuggle- my-baby) is a novel skin-to-skin undergarment which supports mother-baby bonding and stabilisation of physiological parameters. The benefits of skin-to-skin care are numerous including increased oxytocin/bonding, reciprocal relationship building, stabilising the heart rate, respiratory rate, temperature, increasing breastfeeding success and reducing infection though a positive baby biome (Conde-Agudelo & Diaz-Rossello 2016; Brimdyr, & Cadwell 2021).
The NHS Longterm plan, Transforming Maternity Services and Neonatal care bundles assert the benefits and requirement to use skin-to-skin contact. Furthermore, UNICEF Baby Friendly Neonatal Standards (2022) require prolonged and frequent skin to skin contact between the parents/carer and their baby to be embedded into clinical practice.
Following 20 years of clinical practice as a midwife, it was clear that skin-to-skin care was not being maximised (Engemann et al 2013; Smith et al 2017). I proposed via the Head of Department and commissioned two technical fashion department students from BCU to design a garment for their final year project. One was subsequently used to test clinically with my PhD student. The Snugby was found to be safe to use and women found it comfortable and acceptable (Bailey et al 2014, Bailey 2020). The Snugby has a registered IP, non-medical device and trademarked in many global jurisdictions as well as subsequent work to ‘mainstream’ the term undergarment within everyday midwifery practice, reducing staff resistance (Seidman et al 2015; Cunningham et al 2022) and parents (Mu 2020). The preterm undergarment will be clinical tested shortly.
Challenges within the processes have been the acknowledgement of working within maternity services which carry an inherent concern for safety and navigating manufacturing expectations of quick turnaround for garments. Presently the process of creating a spin out company and website is underway.
| Period | 2024 → … |
|---|---|
| Degree of Recognition | International |