Childbirth is a little less labor intensive these days, for the nurses at least, at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
In the delivery room, nurses are scanning the feet of newborns for a print rather than inking them. Parents can still take home the traditional keepsake for the baby book but without the mess for the nurses to clean up.
“It is designed to take footprints that can be used if the child goes missing or is abducted …,” says Mia Ray, who has been a nurse at UAMS for about a year and a half. “Since we can take the mom’s fingerprints, we can match the baby to the mom. But the footprints also last forever. If the child is older and something goes wrong, they can always come back and get these.”
UAMS, which recently partnered with Certascan Technologies’ First Footprint, is the first hospital in Arkansas to provide the service.
“It really has put a lot of things together, because we do the footprints and the pictures, and the mom’s fingerprints all in one rather than doing a bunch of different processes,” Mrs. Ray said. “It kind of just helps put it all together.”
The footprint scan is superior to the ink and paper because it is more clear, identifiable, and efficient in the event a child disappears.
And the process is much cleaner the ink prints, Mrs. Ray said.
“[We] still have some parents request the ink …,” Mrs. Ray said. “I still do that if they want it.”
