Equipment Used

Below is a list of some equipment used in caring for your baby and their functions

Transport incubator

This is a special incubator used to transport babies and can be used in an ambulance. It has all the equipment has everything a baby may need when on the move.

Head Box

If your baby needs oxygen, it may be given via a headbox. This is another small perspex box placed over the baby's head to concentrate the oxygen on the face, and to prevent loss of oxygen when we open the 'portholes' on the incubator.

Humidifiers

A circular, heated chamber filled with water, which is placed outside the incubator and warms and moistens the oxygen a baby, is receiving

Heart Rate & Breathing Monitor

There are various kinds of monitors but all of them allow us to record the heart and breathing rate without having to disturb the baby. You will notice a box outside the incubator with leads attached to three paper discs on the baby. The machine 'bleeps' with each breath or heart beat and shows the rate on the screen. A noise will sound if the baby's condition changes and gives an early warning that we might need to give extra treatment.s

Thermometer

A special thermometer is used to record your baby's temperature accurately. This is often taken with a probe under your baby's arm.

Nasal Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (NCPAP)

Some babies need help with their breathing but do not need the support of a ventilator. NCPAP provides this by giving breathing support via soft prongs that are placed in the nose. Air or oxygen is then delivered through these prongs to provide pressure to help your baby breath.

Nasal cannulae

Babies can also receive extra oxygen by nasal cannula which can be a fine plastic tube inserted a small way into the baby's nostril or a dual nasal prong where soft plastic tubes are placed into the nostrils and connected to a ventilator or CPAP machine.

Infusion pump

If your baby is not well enough to have milk feeds, he/she will need to be fed by inserting a small needle into a vein (a drip). A dextrose (sugar) solution, possible with other fluids is given. To make sure that the fluid is given at a constant and regular rate, a pump is used.

Phototherapy Light

Small babies often get a yellow colour to their skin in the first few days. We call this jaundice and it occurs because at first the baby cannot easily get rid of a substance, which forms naturally in the blood and gives a yellow colour. Until the baby can get rid of this substance we may have to treat the jaundice with a fluorescent light. This is phototherapy. The baby, warm in the incubator with no clothes on, is bathed in this light. Because the light is quite intense, pads are placed over the baby's eyes. The light though quite cool does give some extra warmth to the baby and we have to give some extra water for this reason. Phototherapy treatment usually lasts for 2 - 3 days

Ventilator

If your baby has a breathing problem, we may need the help of a ventilator (a breathing machine). The doctor passes a tube through the mouth into the windpipe (trachea). The other end is attached to the breathing machine, which puffs air and oxygen in and out the baby's lungs. To keep the tube in position, the baby will wear a special bonnet. Sometimes the instrument will take over the breathing completely but is often used to help if the baby's own breathing efforts are at all weak.

Heat Shield

A hoop of perspex placed inside the incubator and over the baby to give added warmth.

Stethoscope

A stethoscope is used to listen to a babys breathing and heart beat

Oxygen Analyser

The amount of oxygen given to your baby is measured by a sensor probe lying near the baby's head in the incubator. The probe is attached to a box outside the incubator. The probe measures the amount of oxygen in the air the baby breathes.