Q&A - NeoNatalie Live

The not-for-profit price for NeoNatalie Live is 285 USD in low resource settings (not including freight and local taxes etc.). Eligible countries for the not-for-profit price can be found here.

Order NeoNatalie Live through our product page: NeoNatalie Live - Newborn Ventilation Trainer or contact customer service directly at [email protected].

When you buy NeoNatalie Live you will receive a box with the manikin itself, a green baby cap, a baby blanket, user guide, USB charger and cable. You will also get the accompanying app for free, which can be downloaded through App Store and Google Play.

No, NeoNatalie Live consists of the manikin and the accompanying app which can be downloaded through AppStore and GooglePlay. A tablet or phone, Upright Bag Mask, and NeoBeat might be bought separately. However, when training you can get the heart rate of the manikin displayed on the screen in the app, without using NeoBeat.

Yes, NeoBeat is a clinical newborn heart rate meter which rapidly provides an accurate and digital display of heart rate, when applied. NeoNatalie Live is compatible with NeoBeat and allows for realistic in-situ training. Trained healthcare workers can also use NeoBeat on newborns in clinical settings.

There is no way to upgrade the original NeoNatalie you have. NeoNatalie Live is a new product instrumented with sensors and app-connectivity, which cannot be added to the NeoNatalie. Therefore, NeoNatalie Live needs to be purchased as a separate product.

The PreemieNatalie manikin is a good manikin for practicing lifesaving skills for small and preterm babies, but it is not instrumented with sensors and app-connectivity like the NeoNatalie Live is.

NeoNatalie Live is available for global distribution to use in low-resource-settings.
Eligible countries for the not-for-profit price can be found here. 

We have a two-week production time for NeoNatalie Live, and the lead time differs depending on market location. The product is shipped by boat, but if air freight is used lead time can be reduced (additional cost will apply with air freight). Lead time by market is estimated as follows:

• §  USA – Approximately 10 weeks
• §  Europe – Approximately 2 weeks (from mid December 2022)
• §  Africa, Asia and South America – Approximately 3-4 weeks

Order NeoNatalie Live through our product page: NeoNatalie Live - Newborn Ventilation Trainer or contact customer service directly at [email protected]

NeoNatalie Live is currently only available for use in low-resource settings. Find eligible countries for the not-for-profit prices here. Laerdal Medical is also working on launching NeoNatalie Live in other markets during 2023.

The NeoNatalie Live was co-created with midwives and clinicians in Tanzania, with similar connectivity issues. That is why the app was designed to be used offline and not connected to the internet. You will need an internet connection when downloading the app, though.

Yes, due to the large battery capacity in the manikin (up to 40 hours run-time) it does not require a continuous power supply. When plugged in, the battery will charge whenever power is available.

The app is currently only available in English.

To delete stored training data please contact Laerdal Global Health through [email protected] 

The product comes with directions for use in the box, but you can also find an electronic version, and other resources including instructional videos on our website: NeoNatalie Live - Newborn Ventilation Trainer

No, you are not dependent on the app for NeoNatalie Live to function, as the manikin also works on its own. All the physiological features like lung responses, heart rate development, and cry-sound are inherent to the manikin itself. However, if you want to get automated advice on how to improve ventilation technique, remote-control the manikin or annotate team-training scenarios, you need the app.

The app can be used on tablets and smartphones that run either on Android or iOS and have Bluetooth. The manikin will connect with the device within 5-10 seconds.

The heart rate of NeoNatalie Live can be read from the app itself. Simply select this configuration in the app settings. One can also use NeoBeat to display the heart rate, but you will not get the heart rate from palpating or using a stethoscope.  

No, as long as the manikin is turned on, it will always give a heart rate that can be read by NeoBeat. In fact, we recommend not showing the HR in the app when you use NeoBeat. The reason is that there may be a slight deviation in the numerical values between the two, so to avoid confusion, it is not necessary to display HR in the app when using NeoBeat.

Up to 40 hours when the battery is fully charged (a slight decrease in battery performance is expected with use over time).

Yes, it can. Two of the studies done with NeoNatalie Live were performed with NeoPuff. The benefit of using a bag, however, is the same as with real babies; it allows you to feel the lung compliance in your hand. 

Yes, you can. In an American hospital where they have been using NeoNatalie Live for more than five years, they have been using flow-inflating bags on NeoNatalie Live as this is what they primarily use in the clinic.

No, NeoNatalie Live is designed for mask-ventilations only.

The manikin will only connect to one device at a time.

NeoNatalie Live uses international newborn ventilation guidelines (Essential Newborn Care 1 by AAP and WHO, ref. hmbs.org), meaning that the feedback received after a session is based on a recommended ventilation rate between 30-50 ventilations per minute (40 as average).

The NoeNatalie Live app supports all iOS devices and selected Android devices. 

See the full list of Android devices supported here

Low-Dose High-Frequency training has been the focus when developing the manikin, both for individual skill training and for group practice. We are currently exploring other utilizations as well, including peer-to-peer trainings in medical, nursing, and midwifery education. 

Low-Dose High-Frequency is an approach to better maintain skills and knowledge over time.  More information about this training method can be found here.

We recommend training three to five together as a group. However, it is ideal to make the training as realistic as possible, by including the same number of people that would be present in a real newborn resuscitation case. One person should also facilitate the training by using the app.

The NeoNatalie Live is designed to be easy-to-use, lowering the burden of setting up the training. A single self-directed training session typically takes less than one minute. The app is designed to gamify the training with patient cases of increasing difficulty levels and performance feedback, which has been shown to be a motivating factor. However, what May Sissel Vadla found through her studies, is that the use of local motivators at the labor wards increased the frequency of training even more.

Yes, you can simulate ventilation’s with NeoNatalie Live on the mother’s chest, as long as the manikin lies horizontally with the face-up. The manikin should not lie on an angled surface like e.g., a mother in a partially sitting position or a tilted resuscitation bed.  The reason for this is that the head-extension sensor in the manikin uses a horizontal surface as a reference for the angle of the head tilt.

Yes, but it is recommended to simulate suction it with air only. Do not fill any fluid into the mouth as this may damage the electronics inside the head.

• The main purpose was to increase health workers’ skills and confidence in newborn resuscitation, as we learned that it was a global need for that. We saw that it was a large lifesaving potential in providing training equipment that would help put the international newborn care guidelines for resuscitation into practice. In many facilities, the midwives would call for a doctor to perform the resuscitations because they did not feel they were competent to do it on their own. This practice cost valuable minutes and many newborn lives. Research done in Nepal showed that newborn mortality decreased significantly when regular newborn ventilation skill-drills were performed among the healthcare providers in the delivery ward (see study). The purpose of the self-directed learning with NeoNatalie Live was therefore to give an easy-to-use tool to empower healthcare providers working in labor wards to provide timely and effective help for the non-breathing newborns themselves.
• As other available newborn manikins did not adequately simulate the challenges encountered in newborn resuscitation, we wanted to make a manikin that better simulates the physiology of newborn lungs.
• Another purpose was to facilitate simulation training in teams, to enhance collaboration between coworkers during the first critical minutes after birth. NeoNatalie Live allows an observing facilitator to annotate the different steps performed and conduct a debrief with the team after the scenario.
• If you want to learn more about the development of NeoNatalie Live we recommend watching the webinar or reading the white paper

The physiological models programmed in NeoNatalie Live are based on data from 1200 real ventilation cases. There was also a study done by Joanna Haynes at the University in Stavanger which showed that the patient cases on the manikin are similar to clinical conditions experienced during real newborn ventilation (ref. this study)