Embrace - Helping Tiny Babies Grow Strong and Healthy

We were first introduced to Embrace nearly two years ago, when this innovative product was still in the design and testing phase. Embrace is a simple, low cost, easy to use alternative to incubators for helping tiny fragile babies maintain a stable body temperature.

We've been anxiously waiting for Embrace to begin distribution of their warmers, and were delighted to receive our first unit less than two weeks ago. Incredibly enough, less than 48 hours later we received a call about a very tiny baby, just 930 grams (about 2 lbs), asking if we could help.

We transferred baby Long to our baby home the very next day.


Instead of bundling tiny Long up in layers and layers of blankets with hot water bottles to help him stay warm, we put him in the Embrace warmer. The warmer is a huge improvement over our old method of hot water bottles because it can maintain a constant temperature over an extended period of time. Hot water bottles begin losing heat immediately when filled, so we would need to monitor the temperature closely and re-fill them with hot water often.


The Embrace warmer consists of a padded, insulated, hypoallergenic "sleeping bag" which has a special pocket for the Embrace warm pack. The warm pack can be "recharged" to the perfect temperature with or without electricity. The warm pack helps the baby maintain a stable temperate for 4 or more hours before needing to be reheated; it can be used over and over again. You can learn more about how the Embrace system works here.

Just 4 days after we put little Long in the Embrace warmer, another tiny baby arrived. Baby Feng was just 1150 grams (about 2 lbs 8 oz)


Here is Feng with her nanny, staying warm with Embrace:



And then the very next day another tiny girl arrived. Baby Zhen was only 1660 grams (3 lbs 10 oz).


Her previous caregivers told us that had a very hard time stabilizing her body temperature, so we were even more thankful that we had the Embrace warmer on hand in case we needed it.



Right now, baby Long is experiencing health complications not associated with temperature regulation (pneumonia and anemia), but Feng and Zhen are stable and growing well. We are grateful to Embrace for helping to make this possible.

UPDATE on baby Long can be found here.