It was created by Sophie Ishiwari and Gabby Daltoso, and it mimics the sounds of the womb. Their idea won Penn's 2023 President's Innovation Prize, awarding them $100,000 to pursue the project.
Sewn inside the Sonura Beanie is a medical device being tested at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. It blocks harmful noises in the hospital environment and also delivers audio messages recorded by their parents.
"We did a ton of trial and error," said Penn students Ishiwari and Daltoso.
"We're measuring early signs of decreased stress. So that means decreased heart rate, decreased respiratory rate, making sure they're, you know, just calm in general, increased oxygen saturation. These are early indicators. In the future, we want to measure growth, like how if they're able to feed faster, those are our future indications," the students added.
The pair have tested the device on six babies in the NICU, including Pamela Collins' son, John, who was born at 20 weeks, weighing just 1 pound, 14 ounces.
"I wasn't there the first time, but the nurses were there, and when I got there, they told me that he was laughing. I really believe he was," Collins said.
Collins, who lives in Mount Pocono, can't always be in Philadelphia with her son. So she, her husband and daughter have recorded stories and even a Brazilian song to tell John how loved he is.
"It's been incredible to see the reaction from six parents. I cannot imagine what it will feel like when it's hundreds, even thousands of parents we're able to help," Ishiwari and Daltoso said.