LIFECRADLE
LIFECRADLE IS A LOW COST, CARDBOARD BABY INCUBATOR FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
Design Engineering, Product Design, Hardware Development, Social Enterprise, Funding
What is LIFECRADLE?
LifeCradle is a low cost, cardboard baby incubator for underdeveloped and developing countries, providing basic facilities for the child's survival in the first few critical days of its life.
Solution
In Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 4, mentions that of the 8.2 million under-five child deaths per year, about 3.3 million occur during the neonatal period in the first four weeks of life. MGD 4 also mentions that almost 3 million of all the babies who die each year can be saved with low-tech, low-cost care, thus reducing Infant Mortality Rate. According to World Health Organization, 99% of new born deaths occur in middle and low income countries.
Infant Mortality Rates (IMR) map, 2012, Source: UNICEF
FIELD RESEArch
We conducted a field research in India, in 6 different cities and 15 different villages around these cities, namely Lucknow, Delhi, Ghaziabad, Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Bengaluru.
We found out that country’s healthcare service has facilities to give a birth to the child at grassroots level but it lacks curtail infrastructure for Neonatal care of premature and underweight infants. These infants are referred to a higher institution if required immediate care and then transported to a district or a city level maternity hospital. This leads to a huge queue of mother and child at these setups resulting in child deaths. In many occasions the infant deaths happens during transportation.
There were two major reasons for the government not able to set up this infrastructure are village level setups;
a) The huge cost associated with providing such facilities at every healthcare Centre.
b) Inconsistency of electrical energy required to run medical equipment at these setups.
Doctors, Paediatricians, Gynaecologists, grassroot level healthcare workers, ANMs, Anganwadi workers, ASHA s, District health officers, NGO founders, WHO and UNICEF workers, etc.
Solution
LifeCradle is a low cost, cardboard baby incubator for underdeveloped and developing countries, providing basic facilities for the child's survival in the first few critical days of its life.
a) The low cost of the product: This allows the government and the non-profit organizations to fund the project and eventually provide these facilities to the grassroots level of the country.
b) Value provided to the family and sustainability: The base of the incubator is made up of cardboard which goes with the child to the house after it comes out of the incubator and this serves as a make-shift-cot for the child for next 6-8 months. After the usage, the cardboard can be easily recycled thus not harming the environment in longer run.
c) Reusable Capabilities: The lid is made up of robust plastic materials and has all the technology embedded in it. It stays with the health care service and serves the next child. It is durable in long run and can be used multiple times.
System
Inspired from Finnish Baby Boxes, LifeCradle is designed to extend value to the family after the child reaches home. Base of LifeCradle is made up of cardboard which goes with the child to the house for post neonatal care, to maintain the child in a proper living conditions by becoming a make-shift cot. And the lid embedded with technology stays with the healthcare unit and is reused for next cardboard box for the next child.
Scenario 1: Healthcare unit
Scenario 2: Home
media exposure
