What are the features needed of an incubator to keep a premature baby alive?
1. Heat. A prem baby does not have any way of regulating its body temperature. Therefore it could get hypothermia, or heat up too much and cause convulsions or brain damage. 2. Oxygen. Prem babies often have underdeveloped lungs which are less efficient at getting oxygen out of the air. Therefore an incubator can increase the oxygen in the air to ensure that the baby gets enough. 3. Infection control. An incubator can be a closed environment so that there is less chance of the baby coming into contact with a bacteria or virus. This is important because babies in general don’t have a developed inmune system, and in a prem baby an infection could cause serious damage, as its body is already under a lot of strain.
