Our Story Begins in a Neontal Ward in Rwanda…
In 2010, one physician’s frustration with preventable newborn hypothermia sparked a global mission.
Too Cold to Thrive: A Call for Innnovation
Skin-to-skin care (STS), also called Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC), was wonderful and worked far better than the few available incubators — but many babies remained cold despite STS.
Mothers with twins or triplets found it challenging to keep all their babies warm.
Some babies were admitted to the neonatal ward without their mothers because the mothers were sick and had to stay in Labor and Delivery.
Even when admitted with their mothers, many babies were sick and required IVs, respiratory support, and close monitoring, which was difficult to manage while maintaining STS positioning.
The babies who survived grew slowly, because they had to divert precious calories simply to stay warm.
Dr. Hansen worried especially about their brain growth during this critical window of neurodevelopment..
When Dr. Hansen first started working on neonatal wards in rural Rwanda in 2010, she was surprised and frustrated to learn that hypothermia was a major obstacle to the care of newborns. Confronting startlingly high rates, she struggled to find solutions.
About a third of the newborns were admitted cold, and almost all preterm babies experienced hypothermia at some point during their hospital stay.
Our Solution: The Dream Warmer™
A simple, life-saving innovation designed for babies who need warmth the most.
Determined to tackle newborn hypothermia, Dr. Hansen partnered with engineers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to create a non-electric skin-temperature heating pad — easy to prepare, use, and clean.
The DreamWarmer is designed to:
Complement skin-to-skin care when available
Serve as a stand-alone external heat source when the mother is unavailable
Work in hospitals, during transport, or at home
From the beginning, we collaborated closely with the Rwanda Ministry of Health and local healthcare providers, iterating on designs to meet real-world clinical needs. After many modifications and improvements, we designed The DreamWarmer, which has now been field-tested with extremely positive results and rave reviews from nurses and mothers.
The Dream Warmer has the potential to overcome many of the limitations encountered by current alternatives. It serves as a complement to STS and allows for easy medical access and treatment. The device can be used in a medical setting, during transport, or at home – either alone, or in combination with STS.
That experience became the foundation for Global Newborn Solutions — ensuring that every baby, everywhere, has access to safe, effective thermal care.