Redesigning the Hospital Cradle to Promote Parent-Newborn Relationships

This thesis explores a process of industrial design applied to the nurturing and protection of premature babies and their families. The project's focus was established through field and scholarly research into the realm of neonatology. Onsite observations at a public maternity hospital in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, led to the identification of the thesis topic Ì¢‰âÂ' the redesign of the neonatal cradle for hospitalized babies. Partnership with the hospital staff, and later with physicians and nurses of a regional hospital in South Bend, Indiana, led to design concepts that were evaluated by medical experts. In the beginning of the project, collaborations were also established with parents of babies that were in the intensive and intermediate care units of the hospital in Rio. Three components guided the development of the project: content, context and collaboration. In this paper I explain how each of these components relate to my broader understanding of industrial design, while also connecting them to specific parts of the thesis project itself. Examples of former projects in graduate school are also cited to provide for a thread of development within my design practice. It is my understanding that designers need to engage in the process of defining the very subjects they are expected to contribute to, taking part not only in the making of things, but first, in determining what things need to be made. The professional responsibility of the designer and his place in society is, then, discussed. While the architecture of the environments for neonatal care have started to be revised to accommodate new conceptions of institutional care for sick infants, the support products utilized in these units seem to be responding at a much slower pace. This proposed solution for the hospital cradle is my attempt to engage in a necessary change that must occur within the universe of artifacts and technologies that compose neonatal care.