For almost two weeks after his twins were born at 26 weeks gestation, Dorian Ojemen could only touch Silas and Simone through small openings in their NICU incubators. Then Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital staff introduced a new wearable device called the Skincubator, and Ojemen became the first father in Texas to hold his premature babies skin-to-skin while they remained connected to the tubes, catheters and monitoring lines keeping them alive.
Ojemen's wife, Tiffany Ojemen, an obstetrician and gynecologist, gave birth to the twins on August 7 at the hospital, according to FOX 26 Houston. He said he was nervous about skin-to-skin contact at first, worried because the twins were so small and vulnerable, but he also described feeling excited about having an easy way to keep the babies close to him once the option became available.
Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital became the first hospital in the United States to introduce and clinically evaluate the Skincubator in its Neonatal Intensive Care Unit as part of an active clinical trial, according to Memorial Hermann. The hospital is a flagship quaternary pediatric facility within the Texas Medical Center, and it operates a 118-bed Level IV NICU — the highest accreditation tier granted by the Texas Department of State Health Services — capable of treating infants born as early as 22 weeks gestation.
How the Wearable Device Works
The Skincubator was developed by medical device company Neocare. It's a non-electrical wearable system designed to maintain warmth and humidity while organizing respiratory tubing, catheters and monitoring lines for infants under 2,000 grams, addressing a problem that has long kept parents at arm's length from their most fragile newborns. Conventional NICU transfers risk severe heat loss and line displacement for infants this small, which is exactly the obstacle the device is meant to solve.
A small trial has examined the device's use during transfers. Hospital News describes a 2026 study of Skincubator 2.0 in which infants were transferred within a warm, humidified environment and reports parent satisfaction findings. Extremely premature infants lack the mature skin barriers and body fat needed to regulate their own temperature without humidified heat, making thermal safety an important consideration for NICU use.
Why Doctors Push for Skin-to-Skin Contact
Tiffany Ojemen said skin-to-skin holding helps regulate the babies' heartbeats, relax them, and reinforce the bond between parents and newborns. Her account lines up with global guidance: the World Health Organization recommends at least 8 hours per day of skin-to-skin contact for preterm infants. Evidence on kangaroo mother care has also reported lower mortality and sepsis.
The clinical trial now underway at Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital is led by principal investigator Dr. Jaclyn Ruggiero at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston, who serves as associate professor of pediatrics and director of neurodevelopmental care there. The study targets enrollment of 60 premature infants born between 25 and 30 weeks gestation weighing under 2,000 grams, according to McGovern Medical School. The trial is expected to run through September 2027, and questions about FDA regulatory approval for broader commercial NICU adoption remain open for now.
Texas Births Lag Behind on Prematurity
The Ojemen twins' early arrival reflects a pattern playing out across the state. Texas recorded 43,344 premature births in 2024, representing 11.1% of all live births — roughly 1 in 9 infants — and received a D grade for overall maternal and infant health outcomes, with its high preterm birth rate among the factors driving the grade, as reported by FOX 7 Austin. Houston itself fared worse, receiving an F grade after the city's preterm birth rate reached 12.1% in 2024; Harris County's rate was 12.0%, while Houston's rate was above the national average, per the same report.
The Ojemens' pregnancy involved twins, who were born prematurely. Separately, inadequate prenatal care is also an issue in Texas.
Against that backdrop, the Skincubator trial at Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital represents a narrow but meaningful bet: that a non-electrical wearable device can let parents like Dorian and Tiffany Ojemen hold their most fragile babies sooner, without compromising the medical support those infants depend on to survive.
