The environment that surrounds a newborn in the days and weeks after birth is not incidental to their clinical care. For a premature baby born at twenty-eight weeks, the environment is the care. The ability to regulate body temperature, maintain adequate humidity, minimise heat loss, and provide a stable microenvironment that lets other clinical interventions work as intended determines outcomes in ways as important as the medications given or the ventilator settings chosen.
At KIMS Cuddles at KIMS Hospitals, Mahadevapura, Giraffe incubators in the NICU at Mahadevapura, Bengaluru are at the centre of the thermal and environmental management of every critically ill and premature newborn admitted to our unit. The Giraffe OmniBed is one of the most advanced combined incubator and warmer systems available anywhere, and it underpins our ability to provide a genuinely optimal physical environment for the most vulnerable babies in our care.
What the Giraffe OmniBed Provides?
The neonatal incubator in Bengaluru at our unit does considerably more than keep a baby warm. The Giraffe OmniBed is a servo-controlled double-walled incubator that continuously measures the baby's skin temperature and adjusts the incubator air temperature to maintain the baby's body temperature at the precise target set by the clinical team.
This servo-controlled mode eliminates the need for manual temperature adjustment and ensures that the baby's temperature remains stable even when the ambient room temperature changes.
The double-walled design minimises radiant heat loss from the baby to the cooler incubator wall, which is a very important source of heat loss, especially in very preterm babies. This design feature is relevantly better for the baby's thermal stability as babies have thin skin and less fat under their skin, which makes them highly sensitive to even minor temperature changes.
Converting Between Incubator and Warmer
One of the most clinically significant features of the Giraffe incubator system is its ability to convert between a closed incubator and an open radiant warmer without moving the baby. The roof lifts away and a radiant heater activates, giving the clinical team full unimpeded access to the baby for procedures, examinations, and resuscitation while maintaining active overhead warming throughout.
This convertibility eliminates the need to transfer a critically ill premature baby between an incubator and a separate resuscitation warmer during unstable periods, removing a source of temperature instability and clinical risk that occurs when separate pieces of equipment are used.
Humidity Control
Very preterm babies lose large amounts of water through their immature skin, a process called transepidermal water loss that is far greater in extremely preterm babies than in term newborns. This water loss contributes to hypernatraemia, hypothermia, and skin breakdown.
The Giraffe OmniBed provides precise humidity control within the incubator environment, supplementing atmospheric humidity to the levels needed to minimise transepidermal water loss in the most premature babies. In the first weeks of life for an extremely preterm baby, appropriate humidity control dramatically reduces the fluid and electrolyte disturbances that would otherwise result from excessive skin water loss.
Neonatal Warmers in Bengaluru
Alongside our incubators, neonatal warmers in Bengaluru are positioned in our delivery rooms and procedure areas. They offer a stable heated space for the assessment, resuscitation and clinical procedures of newborns.
Our warmers have overhead radiant heaters which are programmed to keep skin temperature within the target zone and not just monitored; hypothermia is actively prevented even during procedures that require full access to the baby.
Integrated Monitoring and Access
The Giraffe OmniBed has been designed with clinical access in mind. There are several portholes to enable the nursing staff to attend to the baby while keeping the incubator environment closed. In very small premature infants, the amount of fluid in and out of the body is clinically important; the built-in scale lets the mother monitor it without taking the baby out of the incubator to weigh him or her.
Why Temperature Management Matters
Hypothermia in the newborn period, defined as a core temperature below thirty-six degrees Celsius, is an independent risk factor for an increase in mortality, intraventricular haemorrhage, respiratory distress, hypoglycaemia and infection in preterm infants.
Every drop of temperature less than the set point has measurable clinical implications. The investment in equipment, which provides for precise and stable thermoregulation during the entire period of the admission in the NICU is not a luxury. It is a must for clinical practice.
Why Choose KIMS Cuddles at KIMS Hospitals, Mahadevapura
The quality of the physical environment in which premature and critically ill newborns are cared for directly affects their clinical outcomes. At KIMS Cuddles at KIMS Hospitals, Mahadevapura, our investment in Giraffe incubators and specialist neonatal warmers reflects a commitment to providing every baby in our NICU with the physical environment the evidence shows they need.
For families seeking premature baby care in Bengaluru across Mahadevapura, Whitefield, and East Bengaluru, this level of equipment and expertise is available locally within our fully integrated neonatal service.
Book an Appointment
To discuss the neonatal intensive care facilities at KIMS Cuddles at KIMS Hospitals, Mahadevapura, or to enquire about admission for a premature or critically ill newborn, contact our team or book a consultation online.
