The team rejected the idea of a "cheaper box with a plug" and instead developed a portable, non-electric "sleeping bag".
The story of the infant warmer is a journey of "extreme affordability" that began in a Stanford classroom and grew into a global movement to save millions of newborns. The Spark of an Idea Embrace 01
The program also emphasizes , allowing for skin-to-skin contact between mother and child, which promotes bonding and essential warmth even when the warmer is in use. The team rejected the idea of a "cheaper
: To ensure it could be repaired anywhere, they replaced zippers with buttons and used durable, easy-to-wash nylon and vinyl. : To ensure it could be repaired anywhere,
Jane Chen eventually moved to India to launch Embrace Global , turning the prototype into a reality. By 2025, the organization had saved through partnerships like the Ujala Project.
In 2007, co-founder and her team were challenged in a Stanford Graduate School of Business course called "Design for Extreme Affordability" to create an incubator that cost less than 1% of a traditional $20,000 model. They realized that for rural families in countries like India, the problem wasn't just the price; it was the lack of electricity and the vast distances to urban hospitals. A Simple, Brilliant Design