Quieter Than a Whisper: Measuring Sound from the Prapela pad

At Prapela, we recognize the importance of a quiet environment for newborns, especially those who need a little extra care. That’s why we engineered the Prapela pad to be whisper-quiet. But we didn’t just design it—we tested it.

We measured the sound of our therapeutic pad for neonates and infants in two places: first in our lab to meet FDA requirements, and then again in our office, just like you might see it in use at a hospital or clinic.

To demonstrate, we have Annie, our preemie baby model, and placed a lab-grade reference microphone at her ear level while she relaxed on her pad.

Baby Model Annie on the Prapela SVS hospital bassinet pad Note: The controller inside the bassinet indicates the pad is operating. During everyday use, the controller is placed outside the bassinet basket.

The chart below tells the story. The blue bars represent the baseline sound level in our office with no one talking, measured in decibels, across a frequency range from 10 Hz to 10 kHz. (For context, human speech typically falls between 400Hz and 4kHz.)

The pink bars show what happens when we turn Annie’s pad on. You’ll notice measurements in the 0–100Hz range—the operating range of our unique vibration therapy. Even then, noise from the pad remains below the peak level of the room (which topped out at ~20.5dB in the 100–200Hz range).

Sound measurements with level (dB) on the x-axis and frequency (Hz) on the y-axis) Note: The higher the bar, the louder the sound at each frequency

Every day conversation near Annie’s crib measures 40–45 dB, or more than twice the highest level shown in the chart. A whisper measures about 25dB. The sound of Annie’s pad? Just 20dB—quieter than a whisper.

The result? Perhaps the quietest stimulation therapy ever developed.