Crib A'glow Solar Phototherapy for jaundiced newborn babies
MY STORY:
My son was diagnosed with severe neonatal jaundice in 2015 and as a first time mother, living in a rural community in the Niger-Delta of Nigeria, I did not understand the symptoms of jaundice or possible solutions or dangers that it could cause. Upon going round the hospitals in the state, the doctors said there was no available phototherapy device for him to be treated with. My son's health continued to deteriorate. Neonatal jaundice affects 50% of term babies and 80% of preterm babies, but in Nigeria, the incidents are unfortunately higher and result in higher infant death rates in many communities. This is as a result of poor access to electricity, poverty levels, poor access to good healthcare delivery and the high cost of imported phototherapy devices. Moreover, the babies that are lucky to access conventional fluorescent phototherapy devices end up having side effects such as skin burn, high fever, dehydration and heat rashes. This is as a result of the high temperatures in the fluorescent bulbs in conventional phototherapy devices available for use in most hospitals that are able to afford phototherapy.
According the World Health Organisation, globally, an estimated 6 million babies do not receive treatment for neonatal jaundice because they lack access to effective phototherapy devices. The dire consequences of untreated jaundice are hearing loss, mental retardation, cerebral palsy, kernicterus or even death. In Nigeria, available statistics also shows that one newborn baby in every 22 dies as a result of jaundice. A situation which experts say has not changed in over a decade.
Additionally, mothers and community health workers are not even aware on the dangers of untreated jaundice, its symptoms and its treatment. Rather, there is common practice were babies are given harmful herbs, exposed to unfiltered sunlight, as well as other unsafe methods in a bid to treat the health condition. This eventually results in even more avoidable complications and deaths.
To solve the problem of untreated neonatal jaundice in underserved communities, we have built the “Crib A’glow” unit - a solar powered foldable phototherapy device used for the treatment of jaundice in newborn babies.
These devices are designed and provided for hospitals and health centres in nondescript suburban and rural communities where access to stable electricity and access to good healthcare delivery is poor.
The Crib A’glow Units have a lower temperature compared to most pre-existing phototherapy units, ruling out dehydration, skin burn and fever in the babies.
Preexisting fluorescent based phototherapy devices are expensive and are not effective were electricity is absent. The Crib A’glow Solar Unit is designed to solve the problem of COST, ACCESS AND ELECTRICITY with the required standard of phototherapy. The efficacy of the Crib A'glow Unit has reduced the long stay on admission and has reduced the large number of Exchange Blood Transfusions (EBT) in these babies and also the number of complicated cases as a result of jaundice in health facilities where the device is being used.
To increase the use of the Crib A'glow device, we carry out effective Continuous Medical Education (CME) in rural and urban communities targeting local birth attendants, community health workers, midwives and nurses on identifying, treatment and management of neonatal jaundice as well as the use of the Crib A'glow Phototherapy device.

Tiny Hearts Technology serves jaundiced newborn babies, pregnant women and nursing mothers in struggling communities and camps of Internally Displaced People (IDP) as a result of communal clashes and insecurity. Residents of these communities are distant from access to basic social amenities including good healthcare.
We provide the Crib A'glow for use in hospitals, primary health centres, community health centres for them to use for treatment of jaundice in newborn babies.
The local birth attendants, generally called "Mama Ijaw" in Bayelsa State often take deliveries of pregnant women in rural communities especially where there are no accessible health facilities. We deploy Crib A'glow devices to such communities but what makes the use of the Crib A'glow sustainable and steady is the fact that it is accompanied with periodical "Jaundice Sensitisation Programs". We call it the YELLOW ALERT PROJECT. Through this consistent program, we sensitise health workers from Midwives, Nurses, Community Health Workers and the Mama Ijaws (Local Birth Attendants).
We design training materials and translate them in local dialects to enable them observe babies for neonatal jaundice, identify symptoms and provide phototherapy where necessary.
This has been a process in many communities in across the Niger-Delta and some other parts of Nigeria for over 6 years and has saved over 500,000 babies from neonatal jaundice and its dire consequences.
Additionally, health workers have generally been relieved from the strain of referring their "little patients" to distant hospitals were they can access phototherapy because of our proximity to rural and suburban communities.
When my son was severely jaundiced, my family and I were faced with the challenge of accessing phototherapy devices in rural and suburban hospitals. Despite visiting over nine hospitals and making calls to at least five other health centres, we were unable to find a working device due to reasons such as unavailability, occupancy, and faulty devices. This led us to manage a faulty device, which we tried to fix ourselves when given access to it. This experience inspired me to create Crib A'glow and Tiny Hearts, a solution aimed at providing phototherapy devices and treatment to underserved communities in the thriving city of Yenagoa and its environs.
Engaging Stakeholders: To ensure that our solution met the unique needs of the community, we engaged with stakeholders in the health and community sectors during the development phase. We had conversations with them on their pain points and experiences with newborn and infant deaths and disabilities in the community. Paediatric nurses and doctors who work directly in newborn units also came onboard as advisors and ambassadors to work with us through the process of product testing and feedback. This collaboration has helped us improve our designs and continue to hold periodical meetings and training sessions with them to this day.
Identifying Challenges: During the process of engaging and involving stakeholders in the design phase, paediatricians identified the discomfort of higher temperatures in pre-existing phototherapy devices. They expressed their concerns about the high temperatures causing dehydration, skin burn, and constant fever in their "tiny patients". This feedback allowed us to design our solution with temperature control features to ensure the comfort and safety of newborns undergoing phototherapy treatment.
Access to Rural Communities: One of our unique strengths is our ability to access rural communities through our Yellow Alert Project, a jaundice sensitisation program where we speak the common dialect of the community dwellers. This approach has helped us raise awareness about the importance of early detection and treatment of jaundice, and has enabled us to reach underserved communities that would otherwise be difficult to access.
As a mother who has personally experienced the challenge of accessing phototherapy devices, I am passionate about providing a solution that addresses the needs of underserved communities in Nigeria. With my problem-solving, design, and change management skills, I believe that I am well-positioned to lead this initiative and make a meaningful impact on the lives of newborns and their families.
- Improve accessibility and quality of health services for underserved groups in fragile contexts around the world (such as refugees and other displaced people, women and children, older adults, LGBTQ+ individuals, etc.)
- Nigeria
- Scale: A sustainable enterprise working in several communities or countries that is focused on increased efficiency
The impact of Crib A'glow is significant, as it has already been deployed in over 160 hospitals and 40 Primary Health Centres across Nigeria. Additionally, the device has been used on-demand in over 350 homes, including those located in IDP (Internally Displaced Person) camps since its inception. The widespread adoption of Crib A'glow by healthcare facilities and households highlights its efficacy in treating newborn jaundice in resource-limited settings and this has resulted in to saving over 500,000 babies with this solution. This underscores the importance of our mission to provide affordable and accessible phototherapy treatment to infants in Nigeria and beyond.
VALIDATION: One of the challenges we have faced is the negative perception that many people have about locally-made products, particularly medical devices. Despite the fact that we have taken great care to validate the quality of our product by ensuring that it meets regulatory and clinical standards, we have found it tough to convince hospitals and other organizations to either adopt the use of the Crib A'glow or purchase it.
We have found that many hospitals and organizations are hesitant to embrace locally-made products, and have been reluctant to adopt the Crib A'glow into their clinical practices. This has been a significant barrier for us as we work to bring our product to a wider audience.
By participating in the MIT SOLVE program, we believe that we can increase the validation of the Crib A'glow in settings such as hospitals, where engaging senior health workers has been particularly challenging. This will go far in helping us to break through the market barriers that we have encountered and to build more trust in our product among key stakeholders in the healthcare industry.
We are confident that the validation and exposure that we will gain through the MIT SOLVE program will be a major step forward for our company, and we look forward to the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead.
TECHNICAL SUPPORT: We have been committed to engaging with our users to ensure that it continues to meet their needs. Through this ongoing dialogue, we have been able to identify areas where the device could be improved to make it more functional and effective.
Although we have made some improvements to the design of the Crib A'glow, we believe that there is still significant room for further development. In particular, we are interested in exploring ways to incorporate diagnostic capabilities into the device so that it can better monitor the symptoms and levels of jaundice in newborns undergoing phototherapy treatment.
Through our participation in the MIT SOLVE program, we hope to leverage the technical expertise and resources that are available to us to help us achieve this goal. We believe that by working closely with the experts at MIT SOLVE, we will be able to identify new technical support opportunities and better source the materials that we need to improve the functionality and performance of the Crib A'glow device.
Ultimately, our goal is to create a more effective and user-friendly device that can help healthcare providers to diagnose and treat jaundice in newborns more efficiently and effectively. With the support of MIT SOLVE, we are confident that we can achieve this goal and make a real difference in the lives of countless newborns and their families.
FUNDING & PARTNERSHIP: We are currently expanding our production and sales to Kenya and Ghana, we have a need to expand our production and storage capacity as well as online. Funding from the Solve and further recommendations of partnerships from MIT will make this process quicker for us.
- Product / Service Distribution (e.g. delivery, logistics, expanding client base)
- Public Relations (e.g. branding/marketing strategy, social and global media)
- Technology (e.g. software or hardware, web development/design)

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