GB2449448A

GB2449448A - Safety device having a safety net biased into an open extended in use position.

Info

Publication number: GB2449448A
Application number: GB0709771A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Guy Richard Hubbard; Denise Patricia Lochrie
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2007-05-22
Filing date: 2007-05-22
Publication date: 2008-11-26
Also published as: GB0709771D0; GB2449511A; WO2008142403A1; GB0720943D0; GB2449511B

Abstract

A safety device 1 for catching a newborn baby that can be used with a maternity bed. The safety device includes a rigid frame and a safety net 12 that is secured to it. The frame includes a pair of pivotally biased arms 8a and 8b that are biased to an open configuration where the safety net 12 is extended for use. The pivotable arms 8a and 8b can be retracted to a closed configuration against the bias if better access is needed to the birthing mother. The safety net prevents a new born baby from falling onto the floor during child birth. The safety net is preferably removably secured to the frame and is also disposable. The safety device may be removably attached to a maternity bed by means of U-shape brackets 4 which hook onto a birthing table.

Description

TITLE

Safety devices

DESCRIPTION

Technical Field

The present invention relates to safety devices, and in particular to safety devices incorporating a safety net that can be used to prevent a baby from being accidentally dropped on to the floor of a delivery room at the moment of birth.

Background Art

In the case of a normal hospital delivery, the maternity bed on which the birthing mother lies has the appearance of a conventional hospital bed. The birthing mother is attended to by a midwife and the baby is delivered directly onto the lower part of the bed or straight into the midwife's arms. However, in some cases it is necessary to intervene during the labour to facilitate the birth using instruments such as a vacuum extractor or forceps. If intervention is needed then the lower part of the maternity bed (i.e. that part that normally extends underneath the legs of the birthing mother) is dismantled to allow for greater accessibility and freedom of movement. The maternity bed may also be raised to a convenient working height for the doctor or midwife.

Although the dismantled maternity bed provides for more convenient access to the birthing mother, it also means that there is nothing to physically prevent the newborn baby from falling on to the floor of the delivery room as it exits the birth canal apart from the quick reactions of the midwife. This can present a serious hazard to the newborn baby in situations where the delivery is unexpectedly rapid or the midwife happens not to be present for any reason.

EP 0412213 describes a safety device for preventing a newborn baby-from falling on the delivery floor. A safety net is secured to a freestanding, portable frame that includes a waste collection receptacle for the collection and hygienic disposal of body fluids and other materials incidental to the birthing process. The waste collection receptacle is intended to replace the conventional maternity bin that is normally located at the foot of the maternity bed to collect the body fluids.

US 4823418 describes a five-sided flexible safety net that is attached to the maternity bed underneath the birthing mother using Velcro tabs. A long edge of the safety net is located at the side of the midwife and is bound by an elastic material. The other edges are non-elastic.

These solutions both suffer from serious problems and disadvantages. It is important that the doctor or midwife has easy access to the birthing mother during intervention and this is simply not possible with the freestanding safety device described in EP 0412213. In practice, it would be impossible to get close enough to the birthing mother with the safety device in position and it would therefore have to be detached and moved out of the way.

The elasticated long edge of the safety net of US 4823418 would deflect slightly if a doctor or midwife pressed against it, but the safety net as a whole would still represent a serious obstacle during intervention. The requirement to secure each of the five corners of the safety net to a separate locating point on the maternity bed also requires time that might not be available in the case of a rapid delivery. Even if the long edge was made sufficiently compliant to allow good access to the birthing mother then it would not necessarily provide enough support to prevent a falling newborn baby from rolling off the safety net; since the other four sides are non-elastic, the long edge becomes the path of least resistance.

There is therefore a need for an improved safety device that can be easily and quickly secured to a dismantled maternity bed in the case where intervention is necessary, but which does not significantly restrict the doctor's access to the mother.

Summary of the Invention

The present invention seeks to overcome the problems mentioned above and provides a safety device for a maternity bed, the safety device comprising a substantially rigid frame, and a safety net secured to the frame, wherein the frame includes a pair of pivotable arms that are biased to an open configuration in which the safety net is extended for use.

The pivotable arms may be biased toward the open configuration by any suitable means such as a spring-loading, for example. Limiting means are preferably provided on the frame to limit the pivoting movement at the open configuration.

The frame preferably further includes a head part or stock. The head part may be releasably connectable to the maternity bed and suitable securing means (such as brackets) may be provided on the head part for that purpose. The securing means should enable the head part to be connected to a part of the maternity bed in a quick and easy manner and may include some sort of mechanical fixing or locking means to prevent the head part from accidentally becoming detached from the maternity bed.

In some cases, the head part may be formed as an integral part of the maternity bed itself.

The head part preferably includes a pair of fixed arms and is generally U-shaped.

Each pivotable arm preferably includes a first end that is pivotally connected to the head part and a second end. In the case where the head part includes a pair of fixed arms then the first end of each pivotable arm is preferably pivotally connected to a fixed arm of the head part. The connection between the pivotable arms and the head part (fixed arms) may be a simple pivot point and may include the means for biasing the pivotable arms to the open configuration. Mechanical hinges or zones or lines flexure may also be used.

The pivotable arms can be pivoted against the bias to a closed configuration.

Limiting means are preferably provided on the frame to limit the pivoting movement against the bias at the closed configuration.

The safety net is preferably releasably secured to the frame so that it can be disposed of after use. Any suitable method of releasably securing the safety net to the frame may be used. For example, the safety net could be provided with tabs or openings that are simply slid over corresponding hooks on the frame.

The safety net can be made of any suitable material, but will preferably allow body fluids to pass through it so that they can be collected by a conventional maternity bin.

For example, the safety net can be made of an open weave fabric, plastic netting or a plastic sheet in which a number of openings have been provided.

The safety net is preferably secured to the head part and the pair of pivotable arms. In a preferred aspect of the present invention where the head part includes a pair of fixed arms then the corners of the safety net are secured to the head part (or more preferably the fixed arms) and to the second end of each pivotable arm. When the pivotable arms are in the open configuration, the safety net is therefore extended across substantially the whole of the area bounded by the rigid frame.

The frame can be made of any suitable rigid material such as metal or a plastics material. If a plastics material is used then it may optionally include antibacterial andlor antimicrobial additives.

The present invention also provides a maternity bed incorporating a safety device as described above.

In use, the safety device is positioned such that the extended safety net is directly below the birth canal of the birthing mother. If the safety device is designed to be releasably secured to the maternity bed then it will assembled to the maternity bed once the lower part of the bed has been removed in the usual way.

The pivotable arms are biased to the open configuration where the safety net is extended for use and can catch the baby in the event that it is not delivered safely into the arms of a waiting midwife. The weight of a baby falling on the safety net will cause the pivotable arms to pivot against the bias (which is set to an appropriate level) towards the closed configuration. The immediate movement of the pivotable arms towards the closed configuration results in the baby being safely enveloped by the safety net. This helps to suppress the baby's natural Moro' reflex (startle reflex) which might otherwise cause the baby to roll off of the safety net and on to the floor of the delivery room. Any body fluids will pass through the safety net to be collected by the maternity bin. The pivotable arms can be manually moved towards the open configuration so that the baby can be retrieved from the safety net.

If the doctor or midwife needs access to the birthing mother then the application of light pressure by their body will cause the pivotable arms to pivot against the bias towards the closed configuration. In the closed configuration the safety net is folded away and is no longer extended. However, the space taken up by the frame is substantially reduced and the doctor or midwife has unobstructed access to the birth canal. Locking means may optionally be provided on the frame to temporarily retain the pivotable arms in the closed configuration if the doctor or midwife is satisfied that access to the mother will be needed for some time.

As soon as the light pressure is no longer applied by the doctor or midwife, the pivotable arms will once again be biased back to the open configuration.

Once the baby has been delivered, the safety net will preferably be disposed of (irrespective of whether the safety device has been used to catch the baby) because of the passage of body fluids etc. The frame can then be detached from the maternity bed, cleaned and a new sterile safety net can be secured to the frame ready for use.

The overall dimensions of the frame and the safety net will be sufficient to make sure that a baby is properly and safely caught by the safety net in the event of an accident but not so large as to represent an obstacle during intervention. Also, the shape and configuration of the rigid frame and the location of the pivot points will preferably be selected to achieve a desired balance between providing an effective enveloping effect when the safety net is used to catch a falling baby and easy access to the mother.

Drawings Figure 1 is a top view of a safety device of the present invention in an open configuration; Figure 2 is a side view of the safety device of Figure 1 with a closed configuration shown ghosted.

A safety device I according to the present invention will now be described with reference to Figures 1 and 2. A rigid frame is moulded from a plastics material and includes a head part or stock 2 that isreleasably secured to a part of a maternity bed (not shown) by U-shaped brackets 4. The head part 2 includes a pair of fixed arms 6a and 6b connected together by a joining member 6c. The fixed arms 6a and 6b extend down from the joining member 6c at an angle as shown in Figure 1.

A pair of pivotable arms 8a and 8b are connected to the fixed arms 6a and 6b by pivot points lOa and lOb. The pivot points lOa and lOb are spring loaded to bias the pivotable arms 8a and 8b towards the open configuration shown in Figures 1 and 2 where the safety net 12 is extended for use. Further movement away from the joining member 8 is prevented by limiting means (not shown). It will be readily appreciated that the various relative dimensions of the joining member 6c, fixed arms 6a and 6b and pivotable arms 8a and 8b, and the location of the pivot points I Oa and 1 Ob are merely illustrative and that other configurations are possible.

The safety net 12 is formed of a rectangular sheet of netting material and has tabs (not shown) at each of its four corners. Hooks 14 are provided on the frame for securing the tabs of the safety net. More particularly, a first hook 1 4a is provided on a free end of the pivotable arm 8a, a second hook 14b is provided on a free end of the pivotable arm 8b, a third hook 14c is provided on the fixed arm 6a and a fourth hook 14d is provided on the fixed arm 6b. The safety net 12 is therefore stretched between the hooks 14 when the pivotable arms 8a and 8b are in the open configuration.

If light pressure is applied to the front edge 12a of the safety net or to the pivotable arms 8a and 8b then the pivotable arms are moved against the spring-loaded bias of the pivot points lOa aiid lOb to a closed configuration that is shown ghosted in Figure 2. Further movement towards the joining member 8 is prevented by limiting means (not shown) such that the extent of movement of the pivotable arms 8a and 8b is represented in Figure 2 by the arrow. In the closed configuration, the safety net (also shown ghosted) is not available for use but the space taken up by the frame is substantially reduced. This allows a doctor or midwife to have better access to the birthing mother during intervention. In some arrangements of the safety device, the size of the fixed arms 6a and 6b can be considerably shortened, thereby making the safety device even more compact when the pivotable arms 8a and 8b are in the closed configuration. It will be readily appreciated that the safety device I will usually be mounted well below the surface of the maternity bed (not shown) so that the pivotable arms 8a and 8b will not interfere with access to the birth canal of the mother when they are in the closed (i.e. upright) configuration. The size and shape of the frame and the safety net will be selected according to the relevant circumstances and the maternity bed to which the safety device is to be attached.

As soon as the light pressure is no longer applied by the doctor or midwife, the pivotable arms 8a and 8b will once again be biased back to the open configuration by the spring-loaded pivot points I Oa and lob.

In the event that a baby is caught by the safety device 1, the weight of the baby landing on the safety net 12 will cause the pivotable arms 8a and 8b to pivot against the spring-loaded bias of the pivot points 1 Oa and I Ob towards the closed configuration. It will be readily appreciated that the bias applied by the pivot points lOa and lOb will be such that it can be overcome by the weight of a baby or by the application of light pressure by the body of a doctor or midwife. As the pivotable arms 8a and 8b move towards the closed configuration the baby is enveloped by the safety net 12 and is kept there safely until it is released by the doctor or midwife by manually moving the pivotable arms back to the open configuration. Any body fluids will pass through the safety net 12 to be collected by a maternity bin (not shown) which will normally be located underneath the safety device.

Claims

I. A safety device for a maternity bed, the safety device comprising: a substantially rigid frame; and a safety net secured to the frame; wherein the frame includes a pair of pivotable arms that are biased to an open configuration in which the safety net is extended for use.
2. A safety device according to claim I, wherein the frame further includes a head part.
3. A safety device according to claim 2, wherein the head part is releasably connectable to the maternity bed.
4. A safety device according to claim 2 or claim 3, wherein the head part includes a pair of fixed arms.
5. A safety device according to claim 4, wherein each pivotable arm includes a first end that is pivotally connected to the head part and a second end.
6. A safety device according to claim 5, wherein the first end of each pivotable arm is pivotally connected to a fixed arm of the head part.
7. A safety device according to any preceding claim, wherein the pivotable arms can be pivoted against the bias to a closed configuration.
8. A safety device according to any preceding claim, wherein the safety net is releasably secured to the frame.
9. A safety device according to any of claims 2 to 4, wherein the safety net is secured to the head part and the pair of pivotable arms.
10. A safety device according to claim 5, wherein the safety net is secured to the second end of each pivotable arm.
11. A safety device according to claim 10, wherein the safety net is secured to the head part.
12. A safety device according to claim 10 or claim 11, wherein the safety net is secured to the fixed arms of the head part.
13. A maternity bed incorporating a safety device according to any preceding claim.
14. A safety device substantially as herein described and with reference to the drawings.