Baby, we were born to sim!
UIC Nursing hosts baby shower for new birthing manikin
In celebration of Healthcare Simulation Week 2025, the UIC College of Nursing threw a party.
More specifically, staff and faculty of the college’s M. Christine Schwartz Experiential Learning & Simulation Lab invited the UIC Nursing community to a baby shower for the college’s newest birthing manikin, MamaAnne®. The high-fidelity simulator from Laerdal is new on the market.
“Some of the key upgrades to this manikin include the improved realism of the skin and the ability to simulate obstetrical emergencies, such as a postpartum hemorrhage, without compromising the manikin’s mechanical system,” says Katie Vanderzwan, DNP ’17, MSN ’06, APRN-BC, CHSE, director of the Schwartz Lab.
Healthcare Simulation Week is held annually each September to raise awareness about the vital role of simulation in improving the safety, effectiveness and efficiency of health care delivery. It was created by the Society for Simulation in Healthcare.
“UIC’s top priorities for student success include teaching and learning innovation as well as experiential learning. Simulation is all of those things combined,” says Vanderzwan.
Though it was a departure from what one might expect at a baby shower, the mom-to-be gave birth during the event. In fact, she gave birth three times so all guests could not only observe the highly realistic technology in action, but also witness simulation in its fullest form as Schwartz Lab staff cared for, instructed and encouraged mom through the process, as they would at an actual birth.
The purchase of the upgraded manikin was made possible by additional funding from Nita and Phil Francis, who also made a gift in 2019 to name the birthing suite within the Schwartz Lab.
“We believe it is important to support upgrades to the [Francis Family Birthing Suite] because everything, living and robotic, wears down with use,” says Nita Francis. “The UIC Nursing faculty and students deserve the most up-to-date and well-functioning teaching tools.”
Guests were invited to play familiar baby shower games, such as guessing which foods were inside unlabeled baby food jars and cutting lengths of yarn to the estimated girth of MamaAnne’s belly. Several of the lab’s infant manikins were swaddled, unswaddled and swaddled again in a competition for the snuggest wrap. Guests were even invited to submit name suggestions for the newborn baby.
At the end of the party, Vanderzwan reached into the drop box of suggested names and picked one out: Jena. The event was complete when the ID tag was placed on Jena’s tiny ankle.