Patent Application
20130096368
The present application relates to the field of devices used in the care of newborn or prematurely born babies in the neonatal intensive care units of hospitals or in the home. More particularly, as used in the neonatal intensive care units of hospitals the present invention will be useful in helping to alleviate the consequences of solitary confinement of premature babies in their incubator on later development and behavior and as used in the home environment the present invention will be useful in helping to alleviate the consequences of endless crying on the development of the newborn.
In the last ten years, Boston psychologist Heidelise Als and others have researched and developed ways of making nurseries and neonatal care more “baby friendly.” This approach is known as individualized developmental care (or formally, Neonatal Individualized Developmental Care and Assessment Program, NIDCAP). Therapies that have brought about sharp decreases in neonatal mortality have not brought about similar decreases in neurodevelopmental morbidity for preterm infants. While other staff training programs for developmentally supportive care exists, it is the Newborn Developmental Care and Assessment Program (NIDCAP) that has been the methodology used in randomly controlled trials that demonstrate positive medical and neurobehavioral outcomes for preterm infants receiving developmentally supportive care.
Neonatal intensive care units, NICUs that care for all out-born or transported infants face unique challenges in balancing developmentally supportive nursing care with the high-technological medical needs of the most critically ill and extremely premature infants. Yet it is these most fragile infants who can most benefit from the positive impact the NIDCAP program can offer. Yet, there are no published studies documenting the impact of the NIDCAP program on neurobehavioral outcomes of these transported preterm infants exclusively.
There are many different kinds of technology in the NICU, including different types of infant ventilators, monitors, and supportive devices, such as infusion pumps, oxygen hoods, and incubators. Although this equipment has become more responsive to the needs of the infants, there is still much the scientific and medical communities can learn about the use of technology to support neonates. The many, tubes and sensors used for monitoring the baby's condition, blood sampling and artificial feeding makes some babies scarcely visible beneath the technology.
In the uterus, weight is reduced because fetuses float in the amniotic fluid and loses in weight the weight of the displaced fluid. In uteri the temperature is constant. A fetus never experiences temperature changes and ignores the discomfort that goes with it. In uteri, there is no vision. Researchers believe that a fetus may detect a reddish glow if the abdominal wall is thin enough and directly exposed to brilliant sunlight. Otherwise, darkness is the rule. Sounds are plentiful and the audition develops as early as the fourth month of pregnancy. The sounds from the external world are perceived, filtered by the abdominal and the uterus wall and are transmitted deadened through the amniotic fluid. Other than sounds of the external world, a fetus also hears sounds from its immediate surroundings. The sounds from the mother, her heartbeat, her respiration and her voice; the sounds of the blood flow through the placenta and the main arteries, and above all the loud noise produced by the maternal bowel moving liquids and gasses.
One may say that the uterus is a very loud place. The fetus experiences constant motion. He perceives the back and forth swings of his mother's respiration, the regularity of blood flow impulses, as well as the random movement of the mother. The mobility of the fetus is reduced by the proximity of the uterus wall. This restriction increases toward the term of the pregnancy. In uteri, available space is scarce. There is no smell in uteri, and taste along with touch is monotonous. Because of almost constant food supply, hunger perception is limited. After birth, the gravity exerts its full strength. At birth light is a very new perception. The perception of the external sounds is totally different when received through an air filled ear canal. The maternal sounds, except the voice, totally disappear after birth, as well as the motion of the respiratory swings, the impulses of the blood flow and the motion due to maternal movement.
After birth, the mobility is greater but restricted by the full weight perception and by clothes. After birth, the space becomes unlimited. The smell perception starts as soon as the nose is aerated. Taste becomes variable and intermittent, and hunger may become voracious.
In an incubator, the temperature (and the humidity) is maintained constant. Food is provided by ways appropriated to the age of the premature infant. An incubator frill of “mechanical” and “technical” sounds, while sounds and motion specific to the uterine environment are missing. The device we present is a substitute for the sounds and motion that are part of the natural environment in uterus.
Numerous innovations for the Uterine Sound and Motion Simulation Device have been provided in the prior art that are described as follows. Even though these innovations may be suitable for the specific individual purposes to which they address, they differ from the present design as hereinafter contrasted. The following is a summary of those prior art patents most relevant to this application at hand, as well as a description outlining the difference between the features of the Uterine Sound and Motion Simulation Device and the prior art.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,346,949 of Lori Kamrin-Balfour describes an infant soothing and sleep aid includes a fabric mat. A pair of removable and adjustable barriers are provided, one on either side, that act as a cradling mechanism to make the infant feel safe and secure in the large crib. The barriers include a soothing device such as a vibration mechanism and white noise mechanism in order to soothe the baby in the form of restricted movement, pleasing sounds, and motion.
This patent describes an infant soothing and sleep aid device including a fabric mat using a vibrating mechanism and a noise mechanism but does not exactly mimic the motion and sounds incurred in the womb by the baby.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,636,594 of Richard L. Watson describes an infant warming and sensor mat for keeping a baby warm and monitoring the baby's hemoglobin oxygen saturation level (SaO.sub.2) and heart rate. The mat preferably comprises a bottom layer of compressible padding material, a sensor layer comprising a plurality of light sources and light detectors, a cover layer having multiple openings, and an air layer between the sensor layer and cover layer. Warm air supplied to the air layer escapes through the openings in the cover to warm the baby. The light sources shine light of an appropriate wavelength onto the baby through the openings in the cover, and the light detectors sense the amount of light reflected back from the baby, which is indicative of SaO.sub.2 level. Heart rate is also determined from the resulting periodic signal.
This patent describes an infant warming and sensor mat for keeping a baby warm and monitoring the baby's hemoglobin oxygen saturation level but also does not exactly mimic the motion and sounds incurred in the womb by the baby.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,865,771 of Toshio Shuto, et al. describes an electromechanical vibration transducers are embedded in a pad, and a mat on which a newborn baby is placed on. A graphic equalizer is arranged to correct the frequency characteristics of a sound signal generated by a sound signal generator to characteristics close to the original frequency characteristics even if sounds are reflected to interfere with each other in an incubator. Comfortable vibrations can be applied to the newborn baby. In addition, sounds having frequency characteristics close to the original frequency characteristics can be played for the newborn baby. The newborn baby therefore can feel at ease, and at the same time bedsores, night terrors, and the like can be prevented. Maintenance cost is also low.
This patent describes electromechanical vibration transducers that are embedded in a pad creating frequency characteristics of a sound signal creating comfortable vibrations along with sounds relieving bedsores and night terrors. This patent also does not exactly mimic the motion and sounds incurred in the womb by the baby.
None of these previous efforts, however, provides the benefits attendant with the Uterine Sound and Motion Simulation Device. The present design achieves its intended purposes, objects and advantages over the prior art devices through a new, useful and unobvious combination of method steps and component elements, with the use of a minimum number of functioning parts, at a reasonable cost to manufacture, and by employing readily available materials. Other products presently on the market for such use are considered possibly dangerous nursery products, and do not achieve the desired result of preventing endless crying by the newborn, and the consequences of endless crying which may occur later in life.
In this respect, before explaining at least one embodiment of the Uterine Sound and Motion Simulation Device in detail it is to be understood that the design is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangement, of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The Uterine Sound and Motion Simulation Device is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. In addition, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting. As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception, upon which this disclosure is based, may readily be utilized as a basis for designing of other structures, methods and systems for carrying, out the several purposes of the present design. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent construction insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present application.
The principal advantage of the Uterine Sound and Motion Simulation Devices is to improve the care of newborn or prematurely born babies in the neonatal intensive care units of hospitals or in the home.
Another advantage of the Uterine Sound. and Motion Simulation Device is to give the newborn or prematurely born babies some of the experiences that were felt in the womb.
Another advantage of the Uterine Sound and Motion Simulation Device is to make use of the advanced computer technology to create a more lifelike experience similar to that felt in the womb.
Another advantage of the Uterine Sound and Motion Simulation Device is it will have bladders or pillows or both, for respiration and gait movements.
Another advantage of the Uterine Sound and Motion Simulation Device is being able to create a motion similar to that the baby feels in the womb.
Another advantage of the. Uterine Sound and Motion Simulation Device is being able to reproduce the exact body sounds heard by the baby in the womb.
Another advantage of the Uterine Sound and Motion Simulation Device is being able to reproduce the sounds of the mother's voice that the baby hears in the womb.
Yet another advantage of the Uterine Sound and Motion Simulation Device is being able to adjust, by the means of computer controlled operations, the timing and intensity of the sound and motion delivered by the device.
And still another advantage of the Uterine Sound and Motion Simulation Device is that it can be easily incorporated into an existing incubator in a hospital or be used as a portable device in the home.
A further advantage is low cost of manufacturing and sales of the Uterine Sound and Motion Simulation Device compared to the common medical devices used in hospitals.
These together with other advantages of the Uterine Sound and Motion Simulation Device, along with the various features of novelty, which characterize the design, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure. For a better understanding of the Uterine Sound and Motion Simulation Device, its operating advantages and the specific objects attained by its uses, reference should be made to the accompanying drawings and descriptive matter in which there are illustrated preferred embodiments of the Uterine Sound and Motion Simulation Device. There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the design in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the Uterine Sound and Motion Simulation Device that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.
The Uterine Sound and Motion Simulation Device will consist of an outer enclosure made from a washable soft supple fabric that will fold in half with a hook-loop fastening material on three edges. One or more square hook-loop fastening squares are located on each side join together through matching orifices in the inner sound and motion activation unit to affix it firmly into position when the outer enclosure is folded together. For hygienic purposes the outer enclosure is washable.
The inner sound and motion activation unit will consist of a durable supple material container, housing one or more gait, or body motion units using bladders or pillows activated by the means of an external air, liquid or gas source, controlled by the means of plurality of internal or external valves activated through a computer control unit. These can operate by the means of compress material in tank form or by the means of a compressor or pump system. A control program in the computer control unit will produce the movement/motion experienced by the baby while in the womb/uterus by the means of a bladder or pillow or both, that is inflated and deflated in a manner that mimics the movement/motion of the baby while in the womb/uterus.
One or more speakers will be located within the activation unit and operated through the same control unit. The sound tracks can be independently recorded to facilitate fine tuning for the particular application. The sounds and movement may be customized to be exactly those of the mother or by the use of a standard program that is devised to match a mother with a particular set of physical characteristics or conditions. There will be one or more square orifices matching the square hook-loop fastening squares in the outer enclosure, holding the device firmly in position.
This novel device solves the problem of not having sound and movement that mimic's the environment that is experienced by the fetus in the uterus by providing a device that furnishes both sound and motion and will mimic the intra-uterine conditions. The baby will lay on top of the folded outer enclosure with the sound and motion unit in it. A unique support member to be used under the sealed outer enclosure has been devised that has a gentle head to feet slope of five degrees for the comfort of the baby and lateral body supports on the sides for the baby's safety. The support member is made of foam covered with a washable fabric. Such devices would contribute substantially in reducing the stress of the postnatal period and facilitate adaptation to the newborn's new life environment. The support is optional and intended for use with Example Models 1 and 2 described in greater detail below.
A unique sound and motion recorder device will be used to record the body sounds and movements of the mother including the mothers voice throughout a normal twenty four hour period. Sound from the heartbeat, respiratory tract, bowel activity and maternal voices are recorded as perceived by the fetus while in the uterus. Motion would be provided to mimic the intra-uterine motion by alternately swelling and relaxing one or more pillow(s) or bladder(s).
The preferred embodiment of the Uterine Sound and Motion Simulation Device will be built directly into the incubator when manufactured or installed as an accessory to existing incubator systems. The sound and motion sequence will be produced in either a digital or analog format and may be tailored to a specific set of conditions. The system may be used to stand alone, or integrated into the incubator electronics. The control unit will contain computer programs for display on screen and easy monitoring and adjustment of the controller functions. It will contain separate sound tracts for heartbeat, respiration, mother's voice, bowel and environmental noise. Each tract has an on/off switch and is programmable in time and duration. It will have software and buttons for respiration and gait movement adjustments allowing time, interval and intensity control. It will also come with the recorder to be carried by the mother during the twenty four hour recording period recording movements, sounds, inclusive heart beat, bowel, voice and environment. It will additionally incorporate the unique support member to be used under the sealed outer enclosure that has a gentle head to feet slope of five degrees for the comfort of the baby and two lateral body supports for the baby's safety.
The first alternate embodiment will be manufactured as a portable unit to be used in the hospital or in the home. The sound and motion sequence will be produced in either a digital or analog format and may be tailored to a specific set of conditions. The computer control unit will contain separate sound tracts for heartbeat, respiration, mother's voice, bowel and environmental noise. Each tract has an on/off switch and is programmed in time and duration. It will have software and buttons for respiration and gait movement adjustments allowing time, interval and intensity control. It will also incorporate the unique support member to be used under the sealed outer enclosure that has a gentle head to feet slope of five degrees for the comfort of the baby and two lateral body supports for the baby's safety.
The second alternate embodiment will be a less expensive version being a portable unit to be used in the hospital or in the home with the sound sequence only produced in either a digital or analog format and may be tailored to a specific set of conditions. The control unit will contain separate sound tracts for heartbeat, respiration, mother's voice, bowel and environmental noise. It will also optionally incorporate the unique support member to be used under the sealed outer enclosure that has a gentle head to feet slope of five degrees for the comfort of the baby and two lateral body supports for the baby's safety.
The foregoing has outlined rather broadly the more pertinent and important features of the present Uterine Sound and Motion Simulation Device in order that the detailed description of the application that follows may be better understood so that the present contribution to the art may be more fully appreciated. Additional features of the design will be described, hereinafter which for the subject of the claims of this disclosure. It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the conception and the disclosed specific embodiment may be readily utilized as a basis for modifying or designing other structures and methods for carrying out the same purposes of the present design. It should also be realized by those skilled in the art that such equivalent constructions and methods do not depart from the spirit and scope of this application as set forth in the appended claims.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and form a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the Uterine Sound and Motion Simulation Device and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of this application.
For a filler understanding of the nature and advantages of the Uterine Sound and Motion Simulation Device, reference should be had to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings which are incorporated in and form a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the design and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of this application.
Referring now to the drawings, wherein similar pans of the Uterine Sound and Motion Simulation Devices 10A, 10B and 10C are identified by like reference numerals, there is seen in
The control unit 30 is also in communication with the speakers 48 located within the inner sound and notion activation unit 42 and sound to the speakers is controlled by the control unit 30. The varying sound track may be programmed by computer, and played back in a variety of controlled sequences.
The outer enclosure 14 is made from a washable soft supple fabric that will fold in half with a hook-loop fastening edge material 54 on three edges. One or more square hook-loop fastening squares 52 are located on each side of the inner surface 56 to join together through matching orifices 50 in the inner sound and motion activation unit 42. A break in the hook-loop fastening material 54 will facilitate the clearance for the recording output line 38 and the body motion and respiration lines 40 (see
The optional support member 60 to be used under the sealed outer enclosure 14 has a central flat surface 62 with a gentle head to feet slope of five degrees for the comfort of the baby and two lateral body supports two outside edges 64 and 66 for the baby's safety.
Table 1 seen below explains the various features found in the four anticipated example product models. Example Product Model 1 consists of sound capabilities only. This model can be incorporated into infant products such as teddy bears and the like, as well as being in the form of a newborn comfort mat. Example Product Model 2 will have both sound and motion capabilities. Example Product Model 3 adds a controller capable of connecting to a computer, to control sound tracks as well as an air/vacuum pump for facilitating the sound and motion. Example Product Model 4 is the same as model 3, except that the source of air/vacuum will be the hospital connections in the wall leading to a central hospital air supply and vacuum pull. The various examples shown in the above described figures are one or more of the outlined models as exemplified in Table 1. Many other models are anticipated, including those equipped with recorders for recording both sound and motion.
The Uterine Sound and Motion Simulation Devices 10A, 10B and 10C shown in the drawings and described in detail herein disclose arrangements of elements of particular construction and configuration for illustrating preferred embodiments of structure and method of operation of the present application. It is to be understood, however, that elements of different construction and configuration and other arrangements thereof, other than those illustrated and described may be employed for providing a Uterine Sound and Motion Simulation Device 10A, 10B and 10C in accordance with the spirit of this disclosure, and such changes, alternations and modifications as would occur to those skilled in the art are considered to be within the scope of this design as broadly defined in the appended claims.
Further, the purpose of the foregoing abstract is to enable the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the public generally, and especially the scientists, engineers and practitioners in the art who are not familiar with patent or legal terms or phraseology, to determine quickly from a cursory inspection the nature and essence of the technical disclosure of the application. The abstract is neither intended to define the invention of the application, which is measured by the claims, nor is it intended to be limiting, as to the scope of the invention in any way.
The present invention may be used in all of its varying configurations and models in the care of newborn or prematurely born babies in the neonatal intensive care units of hospitals to help alleviate the consequences of solitary confinement of premature babies in their incubator on later development and behavior and as used in the home environment the present invention will be useful in helping to alleviate the consequences of endless crying on the development of the newborn. Additionally, the present invention can be used for clinical research into the effects of varying sound and motion on the prematurely horn or newborn infant.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/US10/57157 | 11/18/2010 | WO | 00 | 10/2/2012 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61281594 | Nov 2009 | US |
