Spread the warmth! For just a $25 donation, learn how this amazing new nonprofit can keep preemies warm in countries without incubators.

Vivian Manning-Schaffel: In a graduate class called Design for Extreme Affordability at the Design School at Stanford University, MBA and graduate engineering students came up with the Embrace Infant Warmer, a low-cost sustainable incubator for premature babies born in developing countries.

"The challenge we were given was to design an incubator for less than 1 percent of the price of a traditional incubator, which is $20,000," explains Jane Chen, co-founder and CEO of Embrace. "After doing research in Nepal and India, we realized that what was needed is a solution that could work without electricity, given that many of these infant deaths are occurring in rural areas, and one that was easy enough for a mother or midwife to operate, given that the majority of births still take place in the home."

This sustainable incubator resembles a teeny tiny sleeping bag, and contains a heating unit that, after a few minutes in boiling water, maintains a temperature of 98.6°F (37°C) for four-hour stretches.

Darya Mead, a representative for Embrace, says this innovative solution could help save many babies born under desperate, destitute circumstances. "The alternatives in the developing world are horrifying, but born out of desperation," she says. "Moms and health care workers place babies under open light bulbs. Clinics might only have electricity for six hours a day, and, unfortunately, we've also heard of stories where the light bulbs have accidentally shattered. Alternately, they heat up towels in pans and risk burning the babies by tying bottles of warm water to them."

Today, Embrace is a nonprofit organization and has moved to India to complete product development and testing, with an expected product launch date of mid-2010.

Embrace needs to raise $1.5 million over the next four years to take this product worldwide. How can you help? Get involved through volunteering with Embrace, or making a charitable contribution. Or visit their community group on Circle of Moms, where you can join to support Embrace and participate in a number of holiday promotions.

Your $25 will go a long way in helping millions of low birth weight babies born every year in the developing world.

Vivian Manning-Schaffel has written for Babble, Parenting, The Advocate, The New York Post, Business Week and a variety of other publications and lives and works in the heart of breeder Brooklyn with her husband and two kids. She authors two pop culture blogs: The Mad Mom and A Hag Supreme, and is on the web at vivianmanningschaffel.com.