The Association of SIDS and Infant Mortality Programs

Made to Order: A Recipe for Successful Infant Safe Sleep Hospital Outreach

Provide hospitals with a safe sleep appetizer

and they are likely to furnish their staff, patients and community with a buffet!

• A pool of 18 key hospital staff wants to serve in an advisory capacity.
  
• Several hospitals wrote letters of support for grant proposals designed to maintain the Campaign’s hospital outreach.
  
• Educational and technical assistance needs were identified, providing further direction to the Campaign.
  
• Ways to use the Baby’s Easy Safe Sleep Training (BESST) for parent education were explored.
  
• Participants identified ways to remain involved such as developing and strengthening staff in-service education or discussion within their own hospitals or associations.
• Cape Fear Valley Hospital in Lumberton, NC -- the heart of the Lumbee American Indian tribe in the state's southeast corner -- is including a three-hour Infant Safe Sleep and SIDS Risk Reduction in-service presentation at their regional conference on October 5, 2007.  Between 100-150 health professionals including nurses, therapists, health educators and physicians from NC and SC are expected.
• At the opposite end of the state, the Charlotte-based Carolinas HealthCare System comprised of 11 hospitals has established an infant safe sleep committee on their child death review team. The flagship hospital, Carolinas Medical Center, has formed a task force comprised of a staff education committee, a policy development committee and a parent education committee to address issues around infant sleep safety and SIDS risk reduction. A safe sleep policy has been drafted and is currently undergoing review.
  

The SIDS Foundation of Washington was formed in 1961 by seven bereaved Seattle-area couples whose infants died from unknown causes and has remained a strong parent-driven organization for over forty-five years. Collaborating with University of Washington doctors, this parent group brought about the first official definition of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and organized the first international SIDS conference. In 1994, the SIDS Foundation incorporated under the name the SIDS Foundation of Washington as an independent SIDS organization that officially served the state from its main office in Seattle and a branch office in Spokane. It informally served Idaho, Oregon, Montana and Alaska as well, for these states did not have a formal SIDS program.

In the spring of 2007, the SIDS Foundation of Washington changed its name to Northwest Infant Survival Alliance/SIDS Foundation of Washington (NISA/SIDS) to reflect its shift in emphasis to issues of risk reduction education and infant survival, as well as its outreach to other unexplained infant deaths (SUID). All services provided by the Northwest Infant Survival Alliance/SIDS Foundation of Washington are free of charge. These services include literature and bereavement services to anyone dealing with a SIDS or SUID loss, monthly support groups, a “Grief Companion” for a newly bereaved parent, up-to-date educational information, a newsletter, and educational community outreach projects. The Northwest Infant Survival Alliance/SIDS Foundation of Washington is a 501 (c) 3 organization and receives no state or federal funding.

Two of the Educational Community Outreach Highlights NISA/SIDS would like to highlight in this article are its Infant Death Investigation Program and its Safe Sleep Saves Lives Campaign. Each of these efforts focuses on the need to reduce the number of SIDS and SUID deaths in our state and across the country:

• Recognizing the need for uniform death scene investigation standards in Washington, SIDS Foundation staff and supporters spearheaded the passage of legislation to standardize the manner in which sudden pediatric deaths are investigated by law enforcement. As a result of the Foundation’s Infant Death Specialist’s ongoing advocacy, a CD/ROM was developed to instruct law enforcement, death investigators and fire/EMS personnel on how to conduct comprehensive infant death scene investigations. The first of its kind, this training module has been distributed throughout the United States and internationally. As a result of this success, the SIDS Foundation’s Infant Death Specialist, Ms. Deborah Robinson, was invited to participate in a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Workgroup to revise the Sudden Unexplained Infant Death Investigation process. The new process enables investigators to collect the environmental data researchers need to better understand a SIDS death. Deborah regularly consults on SIDS deaths to local, state and national teams to ensure that system standards for compassionate and comprehensive investigations are consistently followed.

• To date, no Washington State agency systematically employs the latest American Academy of Pediatrics “Safe Sleep” recommendations, announced in October of 2005, to continuously educate the public on ways to create a safe sleep environment and reduce the risk of an infant death. To address this unmet need, the SIDS Foundation of Washington initiated the Safe Sleep Saves Lives Campaign in October of 2006. Grant funding has supported ongoing aspects of this pilot project in counties throughout the state. The Safe Sleep Saves Lives Campaign is an advertising and educational campaign that impacts the general public, parents and caregivers, and key professionals. The Campaign’s initial advertising component was accomplished via King County Metro Transit advertising that displayed American Academy of Pediatrics Safe Sleep recommendations on targeted transit routes. The Campaign’s initial educational component was accomplished via risk reduction trainings to key providers who work directly with new parents. These local providers then educated parents and caregivers about unsafe sleep situations and risk reduction practices so they could follow American Academy of Pediatrics’ best practices on how to reduce the risk of a baby dying. Key educational outreach activities include the grant-funded Cribs for Kids Program and the grant-funded Baby Safety Kits Project. The objective of these outreach efforts is not only to provide a needed crib and kits with useful products, but also to educate parents and others who care for infants about how to keep babies sleeping safely.
• The Cribs for Kids Program is modeled on SIDS of Pennsylvania’s highly successful program of the same name. The SIDS Foundation often receives calls from health professionals and community-based agencies working with parents, telling of families who want to provide a safe sleep environment for their infants but lack the means to obtain a crib. When an applicant is approved to receive a crib, the referring provider will deliver the Pack-n-Play to the recipient. This person also provides safe sleep education at the time the crib is delivered.
• The Baby Safety Kits project was developed by SIDS Foundation staff to provide the parents of a newborn with a kit which contains educational information and products selected to reinforce the 2005 American Academy of Pediatric’s recommendations. Given by local providers such as hospital delivery nurses and staff in social service agencies, these specially designed kits serve as a daily reminder of what can be done to ensure the health and well-being of our infants.

To learn more about the Northwest Infant Survival Alliance/SIDS Foundation of Washington and its outreach efforts, please visit our website: www.thesidsfoundation.org

Unfortunately, our website is being designed, so be patient!

In the meantime, don’t hesitate to call and speak with Executive Director Reshma Kearney or Infant Death Specialist Deborah Robinson. We would love to tell you personally about NISA/SIDS and our outreach efforts.

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