Design of a breathing mattress based on the respiratory movement of kangaroo mother care for the development of neonates

Kangaroo mother care (KMC) benefits the development of neonates. This paper focuses on the design and implementing the extension of KMC for infants at Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU). A breathing mattress is proposed to comfort infants and stimulate them to breathe regularly by mimicking the movement of the parent´s chest during KMC. The incubator mattress simulates the breathing of the parent´s chest with embedded electronics and pneumatic technology for mattress motion actuating systems. The stakeholders, including the child, parents and NICU staff, were directly involved during the concept development, prototyping and evaluation.