Providing analgesic laughing gas during birth in a home environment

Providing analgesic laughing gas during birth in a home environment

Schuurmans, E.

Ruiter, I.A. (mentor)
Sonneveld, M.H. (mentor)

Industrial Design Engineering

Industrial Design

2016-05-27

This master thesis report, authored by Eva Schuurmans in 2016, lays the foundation for the development of a product that enables midwives in the Netherlands who facilitate births at home, to administer analgesic laughing gas to relief women in childbirth from pain. In this thesis, Eva presents a product concept that meets the strict regulations of the Ministry of Health and that takes the limitations of the working environment and needs of the users in the Netherlands into account. A literature research focused on the subject pain and N2O was conducted. There was constant contact with professionals and the users, midwives and women giving birth. In total thirteen semi-structured interviews were conducted in the pre-design phase. The prototype was shown to several companies and users with the goal to gain feedback and test the potential. The result is a concept for the technical solution, double mask and casing. The main goal is to keep the exposure value of the midwife as low as reasonably possible, because of the negative effects the gas has on the absorption of vitamin B12. It is a simple product with limited adjustment possibilities, as most midwives are not used to working with complex devices. The woman herself controls the supply with a button. This positively effects her feeling of personal control and feeling of satisfaction. As long as the control button is pressed, the N2O stays within a closed system, only removing the CO2 and adding some O2 to keep the ratio stable. When the control button is released an electrical spark decomposes the N2O before being released into the room. The woman constantly wears a transparent mask. The mask can be opened to the side when the woman suffers from the side effect of vomiting. The outer contour of the mask keeps on extracting air, even when the mask is open. The amount of N2O being used is limited. The three wheels on the casing make it possible to move the product up the stairs. The product has potential for further development. It offers a way to offer an analgesic at home, something that is not yet available. Benefits of the product include the rapid onset, clearance and the low costs involved. A working prototype needs to be built to test the device.

design
laughing gas
N2O
home delivery
mask
birth
pain killer

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:b589db45-8648-4755-be28-070aa7d5cdf7

Campus only

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2016 Schuurmans, E.