NICU Isolettes Provide a “Womb away from Womb” for Pre-term Babies in the Crucial First Days and Wee
Published Monday, November 17, 2025
On this year's Christmas Wish List: a new isolette for the NICU. Your donation will help provide a temperature-controlled, protective space — a “womb away from womb” where premature and fragile newborns can grow stronger in their first days and weeks of life.
All babies need time to adjust outside the womb, including time for their bodies to regulate their own body temperature. This is especially true for premature babies. They have less body fat to keep them warm, and the area in the brain that maintains temperature control may not yet be fully developed. In other words, baby can get too warm or too cold – and either can lead to serious health conditions.
That's why the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Foundation put the isolette on this year's Giving Tuesday Christmas Wish List: to give all infants their best start to life. The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) helps take care of the Hospital's babies who need extra medical attention including pre-term babies. Your gift this Giving Tuesday will help nurses give these vulnerable newborns the care they need in their first days and sometimes weeks of life.
“Isolettes are life-saving environments for our most fragile patients,” said Brooke Hulina, a nurse in the NICU at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre. “They are temperature-controlled spaces that help premature and sick newborns maintain their body heat.”
Not only does the isolette help keep baby's temperature in normal range, it can monitor baby's core and surface temperatures, sounding an alarm if either falls outside of range.
However, temperature is just part of the story. As the name suggests, isolettes are small isolation beds. In some ways they are a “womb away from womb” to help protect baby from the environment around them while they grow and develop. These modern isolettes also reduce the stress of noise and light.
“By mimicking the warmth and safety of the womb, these isolettes give infants the stability they need to grow stronger and take their first steps to life outside the NICU,” Hulina said.
Any parent who has had a baby in the NICU knows how difficult separation from your baby can be. The ability to see and touch their baby is important for bonding for both parents and baby. The clear isolettes include several hand ports so parents can see and touch baby, and also give several access ways for staff providing care.
“The isolettes are ergonomically friendly with adjustable heights making it easier for both family and staff to access the infant,” said Jennifer Somera, Manager, NICU. “They have smooth castors and a braking system for safety, so it can be moved from one location to another with minimal disturbance to the infant.”
“It's so important that we have up-to-date equipment because we are the only hospital in Northwestern Ontario with a NICU,” Hulina said.
“The NICU is so honoured that the Foundation is raising money for new isolettes this Giving Tuesday. We want to thank all donors for helping our tiny patients get the best possible care, closer to home.”
This Giving Tuesday, please help us give babies in the NICU the best care possible! Your donation will help us purchase more isolettes for the Hospital's NICU for babies all across Northwestern Ontario. Donate online at: www.healthsciencesfoundation.ca/wishlist