Smart textiles in neonatal monitoring : enabling unobtrusive monitoring at the NICU

Prematurely born and critically ill babies admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit require round-the-clock monitoring of vital signs and in special cases additional parameters such as brain functioning monitoring. Although close monitoring is fundamental for a good developmental outcome, the monitor systems are obtrusive, causing stress for the baby and hampering parent-child contact. New developments in textile and electronics offer opportunity in greatly improving the comfort and appearance of the monitoring systems for ECG as well as EEG monitoring by replacing the adhesive electrodes with textile electrodes. The authors present the designs of a neonatal jacket containing textile electrodes for ECG monitoring and textile electrodes intended to be integrated in a cap for brain functioning monitoring. The initial results presented show good prospect for further development. Accuracy and reliability are challenges specific for the medical application of smart textiles such as in neonatal monitoring. Furthermore, the mass-production of smart textiles requires improvement before smart garments can be introduced to the practice of neonatal care.