Creative Design: Professional

Size-Adjustable Functional Maternity Hospital Gowns

---

Abstract

The current design of A-line woven gowns with full back openings are physically and emotionally uncomfortable, overly revealing and not functional. These archaic gowns also do not align with shifting ideals towards shared decision making or personalized care in the medical industry. Thus, the purpose of this design is to develop functional maternity hospital gowns that meet the user needs for both patients and practitioners. To determine key design features of patients and practitioners’ user needs for maternity gowns, a user-centered design (UCD) framework (Morris, Park, & Sarkar, 2015) was adopted. This included three focus group interview sessions with postpartum women, phone interviews with three obstetrical nurses at birthing places, and market research that included analyzing 83 gowns from 23 birthing places and 25 leading retailers. Once the design features that met physiological and psychological needs were identified, a 3D croquis based on ASTM-D7191 body measurements for maternity size 12 was generated using Lectra Modaris. The 3D croquis was then used to create finalized design sketches for prototyping.

How to Cite:

Hwang, C. G. & McCoy, L., (2019) “Size-Adjustable Functional Maternity Hospital Gowns”, International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference Proceedings 76(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/itaa.8401