How might we provide a space for comfortable parental disengagement and re-engagement to overstimulation, without reducing the stimulation levels below critical levels for the infants, in the NICU environment?

Our Solution: A Room Dividing Device for the single family rooms in the NICU at Rhode Island Women and Infants

Working prototype installed in the NICU at Rhode Island Women & Infants

Research shows that NICU parents suffer from higher levels of tension, anger, fatigue, and depression than full-term parents. In addition, cortisol levels have been shown to be higher in preterm infants with depressed mothers compared to those with non-depressed mothers. This creates a need for a device that helps parents destress and rest in the NICU thereby improving the health and outcome of both NICU parents and babies. The current curtains are made of cloth and mesh and thus provide little visual privacy, no reduction of sound when expanded, and must be removed from the ceiling track to be sanitized. NICU parents cannot ignore intrusive sounds coming from nearby rooms by shutting this curtain. Mothers who wish to spend the night on the sofa bed for 3-hour wake-up breastfeeding cycles cannot get restful sleep without a way to effectively dampen the noise and light around them. Our solution is not only intended to improve the NICU experience for mothers and their families, but as well as the staff who regularly interact with the curtains in order to help increase efficiency of the hospital environment and therefore improving the health of the mothers and their babies.

Thank you to Ultralon Foam Group and Filzfelt for you generous donations! Thank you to the Inside Outside team for you invaluable advice and insight!