Electromagnetic field created in incubators influences heart rates of newborns

Researchers found out that incubators have bad influence upon heart rates of newborn babies.

Photo: Electromagnetic field created in incubators influences heart rates of newborns

The reason lies in electromagnetic field created by incubators.

It’s still unclear if these changes have long-term effects, but it’s quite clear that they cause implications for premature infants who “live” in incubators for several days, weeks or even months.

Incubators were created to provide better temperature support, isolation from infection risk, specialized feeding of low birth weight infants.

The University of Siena 's Department of Pediatrics, Obstetrics, and Reproductive Medicine conducted a study revealing that most of incubators produce electromagnetic fields, exposure to which has an influence on babies' nervous system.

Researchers studied 43 newborns. Heart rates of 27 babies were thoroughly assessed for three five-minute periods during which the incubators motor was left on, then switched off and then turned on again.

To find out the role of noise, 16 of the infants were exposed to background noise, while the incubators motor was turned off.

As a result researchers learned that background noise had no affect upon heart rate, while incubators on the whole significantly affected heart rates - once the incubator was on, the heart rate variability dropped significantly.

Photo: www.ehponline.org