"First Hug" - Only YOU can prevent . . . uh, whatever this is supposed to prevent?

Remember my April Fool's post? All those baby gadgets that one can hardly believe have even been invented, much less are in regular use? This trumps them all.


Even the car seat "sling" makes more sense.

The site tells us exactly NOTHING. Does anyone have any idea what this is for? Besides another product designed to prey on new parents' fears? I'm genuinely interested in an explanation. Like . . .

Don't you hate it when you're holding a baby and all of a sudden you just throw them in the air? Sudden Adult Spasm Causing Infant Droppage is everywhere, haven't you heard? Holding babies with only your arms and hands and bodies is perilous business. Finally, a product to make it possible! At last, we have the "First Hug"! No longer must we risk holding a baby without having our forearms connected by a piece of cloth. Help fight SASCID today!

Or,

Having one's fingers flapping about unrestricted has likely been proven to be riskier to babies. It is statistically possible that someone, somewhere has gouged a baby's eye out with an index finger, but not with a thumb, we don't think. So safe infant holding standards should ensure that only thumbs are exposed. With First Hug, recklessly exposed fingers no longer pose a threat!

Or . . . something like that.

Almost no product is bad if used appropriately, and conservatively; the Zaky in the aforementioned blog post was invented for use with preemies, and is totally understandable in such situations. So . . . exactly what makes this First Hug "the smarter, safer way to share the joy of holding your baby"? Maybe this is a big joke that I'm missing? Tell me this is a big joke that I'm missing.


The grandpa, presumably, in the photo is in a hospital gown, so it seems to suggest some kind of medical condition - but what? Is the concern about the baby or the adult? Is it perhaps specifically for adults with conditions that make it dangerous for them to hold babies somehow? (If so, I would suggest that having them hold the baby seated, with a pillow on their lap to support their arms, is as safe as it gets.) That's the best I can come up with, but if that's the case, why would they not say so? And why would the woman in the main photo appear to be completely normal? The website offers NO information on the reason for this product's existence whatsoever - except that they're giving away a million of them to new moms . . . and coincidentally, they're interested in whatever baby inventions YOU have to share with them!

Medical Safety Solutions is committed to giving away 1,000,000 free First Hug^® blankets along with our MOM2B Savings Guide—a newsstand-quality publication full of great deals on the kind of products new parents are looking for.

If you’ve got a great new product for new families, or if you’ve been struggling to get your message heard in this highly-competitive market, we'd like to talk to you.

Aha.

Maybe I should have my first blog contest. What do you think? Comment with your own baby invention surely invented for the sake of inventing an invention below. Points deducted for usefulness, especially if it promotes actual infant-to-parent attachment and bonding. I'll give away a little something yet to be determined (I literally just though of this this very moment and have nothing to plug). Shall we give it a week?

*****

UPDATE: I contacted the company and asked what in the world was going on with this (in slightly nicer language). They promptly replied:

Hello, Anne. Glad you asked. We're probably going to add some more information to the site, as you're not the first person to ask this question. [Shocked, I am SHOCKED!]

The First Hug® was invented by a paramedic and respiratory therapist after 30+ years assisting in the deliveries and being around newborns. It was conceived as a delivery blanket.

It's not necessarily safer than holding a baby in your arms—if you know what you're doing. Often times, people don't. This is especially true of young people and, sadly, the elderly whose motor skills have deteriorated with time. It's clean, easy to use and safer to hold a baby with than any loose blanket.

Hope this helps...


The First Hug® Team

So, if you check out the comments below, I think Elita was right on the money. I think they developed this for hospitals, and hospitals looked at it and said "Are you even kidding me with this nonsense?" (I'm channelling Janice Dickinson on ANTM here), so now they're trying to unload the MILLION they had prematurely manufactured. Oops!

The one somewhat legitimate use I had suspected was for the elderly, who may be frail or dealing with Parkinson's symptoms, which is one of the uses they mention. I still fail to see how this is any safer that being seated with a pillow on a lap.

And the whole original concept of using it as a "delivery blanket" is just . . . HOW, exactly? Your hands are both immobilized. How are you to do anything else that might need to be done with a newborn? Leaving aside the fact that the newborn should be with and on the mother if at all possible, let's assume there is some medical reason to take the baby away. Can you suction the baby while using First Hug? Cut the cord? Do anything that involves even one hand? Seems to me that introducing it into the delivery room requires one person to be doing nothing but standing there with their arms extended. How efficient!

Now I'm stuck with the image of someone holding the empty First Hug out underneath the woman's crowning pelvis to actually catch the baby. Still, I am tempted to order one. You know, just to help reduce the surplus.