The newborn delivery room of tomorrow: emerging and future technologies

Advancements in neonatal care have shown improved outcomes in high-risk newborns with technologies playing a significant part although many were designed for the neonatal intensive care unit. The care provided in the delivery room (DR) during the first few minutes of life affects short- and long-term neonatal outcomes. Increasingly, technologies play a crucial role in the DR, especially with monitoring and information provision. However, the DR is a distinctive environment and has major provocations near the period of fetal to neonatal transition that need to be addressed when developing new technologies. 

When introducing any new equipment into a time-critical, acutely stressful DR resuscitation scenario, the benefits must be apparent. Increasing monitoring modalities in the DR can cause information overload and impact performance. However, emerging technologies promise safety and the progress of outcomes following neonatal stabilization or resuscitation. Adding technologies to the DR will impact an individual infant’s care, enhance the training of HCPs and allow collaborative working across centres. Thus efforts need to be intensified to deliver new innovative technologies to improve newborn DR care during the first golden minutes of life, aspiring to minimize morbidities that can dwell with infants for their lifetime.

SOURCE- Bate N, Henry C, Garg S. et al. The newborn delivery room of tomorrow: emerging and future technologies. Pediatric Res, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-022-01988-y