Skincubator Neocare
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Delivering the standard of care to the NICU’s most fragile infants.

Skincubator is a wearable medical device designed to enable immediate, prolonged skin-to-skin care for babies under 2000 g, from the day of birth.

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FDABreakthroughDevice Designation
ISO 13485certified
Peer-reviewedresearch
Funded byNIH
Registered inAustralia &New Zealand
1st place,EIT HealthInnoStars 2025
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The evidence is clear.
The infrastructure is missing.

In very preterm infants, more skin-to-skin care in the NICU is associated with better brain development.2,3 WHO recommends it from birth, for 8+ hours a day.1

But significant challenges prevent, delay, or interrupt this critical intervention for the patients who need it most.

One day in the NICU
WHO recommends immediate, prolonged skin-to-skin
8+ hours
Fragile infants <1.5 kg* receive in the first days of life
under 30 minutes
the rest of the day in the incubator

Recommended: WHO, for preterm and low-birth-weight infants.1 Received: babies under 32 weeks in most units, in the first 7–14 days of life.2,3 * Under 1.5 kg is the most fragile group, and the one least likely to be held today. Skincubator is designed for infants under 2000 g, including under 1000 g.

Because the NICU is built around the incubator. Every device, protocol and workflow assumes a baby lying in the incubator. None is designed for a baby on a parent.

More than 40 reasons a session never starts, or ends too soon.

Each barrier is a rate-limiting step: solve one, and the next still prevents skin-to-skin. Skincubator was designed around them.

The baby
  • Humidity drops outside the incubator
  • Cold stress in the transfer
  • Too much handling, too early
  • Head drifts off midline
  • Lines tangle and pull
  • Breathing tube could dislodge
  • Feeding tube pulled out
  • Umbilical lines rule out holding
  • Ventilator circuit hard to move
  • Phototherapy interrupts holding
  • Baby can’t stay in place
  • IVH bundles forbid holding
The parents
  • Mother still recovering from birth
  • Parent exhaustion
  • Partner’s own health
  • Other children to care for
  • Back to work too soon
  • No parental leave
  • Parking far or costly
  • No meals for parents
  • Language barriers
  • Anxiety about handling
  • Fear the baby will fall
  • Fear a parent will fall asleep
The staff
  • Staff fear extubation
  • No nurse time to spare
  • Too many infants per nurse
  • Procedures cut sessions short
  • Routine care ends the session
  • Lost at shift handover
  • Resistance to change
  • No protocol
The unit
  • A loud unit
  • Harsh lighting
  • Uncomfortable chairs
  • No privacy
  • No space at the bedside
  • No budget
  • Incubator-first workflows
  • Skin-to-skin is never measured
  • Separation at delivery

And many more.

Six things must happen
for skin-to-skin to work.
Skincubator is designed to do all six.

Developed over four years with NICU nurses, neonatologists, and families to address each barrier.

01

Move the baby

A transfer pad slides beneath the baby and carries them to the parent’s chest, with every line. Designed for one nurse, without lifting the baby by hand.

02

Keep lines in place

Breathing tubes, catheters, and monitoring lines anchor to the device, so the parent can move without pulling them.

03

Maintain warmth & humidity

A clear cover is designed to hold the warmth and humidity the baby needs, on the parent’s chest, for hours.

04

See & reach the baby

The care team can see the baby and lines throughout, with access ports for routine care and one-movement release.

05

Sustain 8+ hours

Parents can rest, sleep, and hand over to a family member, so sessions continue for hours.

06

Prepare the parent

Trauma-informed guidance, from before birth to the bedside, so parents know what to do and when.

One wearable device,
built for hours on a parent’s chest.

A wearable medical device designed to keep the baby secure, warm, and visible on the parent’s chest, so skin-to-skin care can begin in the first hours of life and continue for hours at a time.

“It gave me a meditative way to step back into pregnancy, to allow a more gradual, less traumatic separation.”
A mother, on holding her baby in the Skincubator
6–15 h
of skin-to-skin a day, repeated through the first days of life for fragile babies
5 / 5
nurses’ safety rating, vs 4 / 5 for traditional skin-to-skin (20 NICU nurses, J Neonatal Nursing 2025)
5 / 5
parents’ safety rating, vs 3.5 / 5 for traditional skin-to-skin (18 parents, Am J Perinatol 2026)
A session in progress in the unit, with the nurse alongside
Visibility and hands-on access throughout the session, with the nurse alongside.
For clinicians

Designed with NICU nurses and neonatologists to fit the way your unit works. See how Skincubator supports your team, your patients, and your protocols.

See how it fits your unit
For families

You are central to your baby’s development. Learn how skin-to-skin supports your baby, and how Skincubator is designed to help you hold them for as long as you can.

What skin-to-skin means for you

Four years of external validation

Selected, mentored and funded by leading programs in pediatric devices, women’s health and neonatal research.

2023
Stanford PDC
Pediatric Device Consortium mentorship
2024
Femovate
FemTech Accelerator
2025
EIT Health
InnoStars Awards, 1st place
2025
Synergy
Clinical trial grant
2026
NIH · NICHD
SBIR Fast Track award

See Skincubator in action.

Talk to our team. We’ll show you how it works and answer every question.

Book a call
References +

1. World Health Organization. Recommendations for care of the preterm or low-birth-weight infant, 2022.

2. Travis KE, Lazarus MF, Scala M, et al. Skin-to-skin holding in relation to white matter microstructure in infants born preterm. Neurology, 2025;105(8):e214138. Stanford, 86 infants under 32 weeks: an average of 24 minutes of skin-to-skin a day. doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000214138

3. Inpatient skin-to-skin care predicts 12-month neurodevelopmental outcomes in very preterm infants. The Journal of Pediatrics, 2024. Stanford, level IV NICU: families averaged about 17 minutes a day. PMC11514444

4. Karlsson V, et al. The Journal of Pediatrics, 2012. Transepidermal water loss in preterm infants during skin-to-skin care.