# Development of the Couplet Care Bassinet to support safe implementation of skin-to-skin contact and rooming-in on postnatal units

> **NIH NIH R44** · COUPLET CARE, LLC · 2024 · $649,496

## Abstract

Abstract -
Couplet Care, LLC is developing the Couplet Care BassinetTM, a novel infant clinical bassinet designed to support
safe implementation of skin-to-skin contact and rooming-in on postnatal units. Until recently, the standard of
hospital care for healthy term newborns was to be observed and cared for by maternity staff in a nursery with
other infants. However, as detailed in the World Health Organization/UNICEF report Ten Steps for Successful
Breastfeeding, it is now recommended that mothers and infants “room-in” together 24 hours per day, with one
hour of separation allowable for procedures outside of the postnatal unit room. As a result, the practice of nursery
care is no longer recommended nor facilitated. However, most bassinets in U.S. hospitals are still designed for
use by ambulatory nursery staff, rather than by mobility-impaired new mothers. These relics of nursery care
restrict maternal access to their infants and introduce infants to increased risk of physical injury. Bassinet tubs
can tip under the weight of mothers’ arms and the height of the tub walls can compromise infant handling. Often,
new mothers are required to either substantially twist their bodies to access their infants or get up out of bed to
reach them, despite being in immediate postpartum period and needing to heal. Such actions can cause new
mothers to experience unnecessary frustration, pain, or even injury. This is especially critical to the one-third of
U.S. women who deliver by cesarean section, as their limited ability to move and postpartum pain hinder timely
and safe infant care, undermine breastfeeding, impede their own recovery, and contribute to risk of infant falls
and suffocation. The substantial difficulty maneuvering infants in and out of conventional bassinets, coupled with
the pain and fatigue felt by new mothers, increase the risk of 1) infant drops, and 2) falling asleep with infants in
unsafe arrangements. To address these gaps in safe care, Couplet Care has developed a novel bassinet that
allows mothers to position infants over their bed and handle the infants independently. This is the only bassinet
model that gives mothers 100% access to their infant, without requiring the assistance of a second
person for infant transfer or bassinet adjustment. To ensure usability and safety, the Couplet Care Bassinet
design incorporates (1) a lower tub wall with access points, making it easier for a mother to reach her infant, (2)
adjustability features that allow for bassinet positioning over the mother, and (3) a design that secures the tub
into the frame. Building on the learnings from prototype use in a clinical setting during Phase I, Couplet Care
proposes the following Phase II Specific Aims: 1) Design Couplet Care Bassinet that is manufacturable and
compliant with FDA regulations, 2) Evaluate the impact of the Couplet Care Bassinet on maternal-infant patient
outcomes in a powered RCT, 3) Evaluate the usability and adoptability of the device from c...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10907832
- **Project number:** 5R44HD097017-03
- **Recipient organization:** COUPLET CARE, LLC
- **Principal Investigator:** Stacie McEntyre
- **Activity code:** R44 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $649,496
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-09-01 → 2026-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10907832

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10907832, Development of the Couplet Care Bassinet to support safe implementation of skin-to-skin contact and rooming-in on postnatal units (5R44HD097017-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10907832. Licensed CC0.

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