Malav Sanghavi, studying for his innovation design engineering (IDE) master’s dual degree course at Imperial College London and Royal College of Art, has given new life to millions of newborns worldwide. His invention also won third prize for his BabyLifeBox in a start-up competition held at St James’ Palace in London.
This is a great news for India and for millions who are deprived of basic grass roots-level infrastructure and facilities for neonatal care of premature and underweight infants as Malav has developed a low-cost cardboard baby incubator that could help save millions of lives.
For those who are new to the word incubation, incubation is the process of keeping something at the right temperature and under the right conditions so it can develop.
“BabyLifeBox is a low-cost baby incubator that provides basic neonatal care at grassroots-level. India has highest number of babies dying within the first 24 hours of their birth in the world, more than 300,000 a year,” Sanghavi said.
“According to our initial research, we found that India’s healthcare service has facilities to deal with a standard birth at sub-centres, primary health centres and community health centres but it lacks infrastructure for neonatal care of premature and underweight infants,” explained Sanghavi, a graduate from the National Institute of Design (NID) in Ahmedabad.
The idea for the innovation took birth in his mind when his cousin’s daughter had to be kept alive in an incubator a few years ago. It’s sad that before him, no one realized the importance of such very basic facilities devoid of which so many children have to die inoffensively.
Life saving innovation
Made from cardboard, the bottom part of the incubator can be given to the parent of the child after birth as a make-shift cot. “Three hundred million children die every year, just in their first week of life. BabyLifeBox provides basic facilities – like warmth, monitoring and a germ free environment – to provide essential neonatal care at a grassroots level in places where these facilities might otherwise not be available.”
“Pitching in front of so many important people at St James’s Palace was nerve-racking, but I was confident in my idea, and I’m really happy that the audience recognised its promise. This has given the whole team the boost we need to move forward – we’re now looking for investment to help develop viable prototypes of BabyLifeBox for testing and clinical trials.”
Prior to Pitch@Palace, Malav received a £500 grant from Imperial College Advance Hackspace to help him develop the prototype of his product. “Having access to the facilities, expertise, and funding at Imperial has been hugely helpful in the development of Lifebox. As students, this kind of support is invaluable”, he said.
