Safe Sleep Saves Lives

Quality improvement (QI) work is driven by an interest in implementing changes that lead to improvements. In breastfeeding and safe sleep work, this can be challenging. It can be difficult to fully and accurately understand the source of maternal and child health inequities. Learn how National Action Partnership to Promote Safe Sleep Improvement in Innovation Network (NAPPSS-IIN) project confronted these challenges and found that community-based participatory quality improvement might hold the answer. As NAPPSS-IIN concludes its fifth year of breastfeeding and safe sleep work, three key lessons have emerged about the value of community voice in breastfeeding and safe sleep quality improvement. 

In the U.S., Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), suffocation and other sleep-related causes claim approximately 3,600 babies every year. That number translates to nearly 165 unfilled kindergarten classrooms. Doing better by American families starts by identifying what’s working and outlining opportunities for improvement. Here, NICHQ Faculty Expert Michael Goodstein, MD, a neonatologist and international safe sleep expert, discusses what priorities should shape improvement efforts in the years to come.

For the past two years, Tufts Floating Hospital for Children has been working to empower families to follow safe sleep guidelines so that more babies reach year one. Hospitals seeking to help more families adopt safe sleep practices can learn from and replicate the strategies they share. 

Black families are twice as likely as white families to have their baby die in the first year of life. These statistics are more than numbers; they represent real families who suffer unimaginable loss—loss that stems from the persistent effects of systemic racism on the health of black families. Here, faculty experts on a national safe sleep and breastfeeding initiative share their recommendations for how health professionals and improvement initiatives can better support the health and well-being of black families.

Healthy babies shouldn’t die in their sleep. But, despite decades of trying to reduce the number of sudden unexpected infant deaths (SUID) they still persist. And most often, their persistence affects families of color. In this article, Founder of the Global Infant Safe Sleep Center, Stacy Scott, shares ideas on how we can best address this alarming lack of equity and reduce sleep-related deaths across all populations.

Social media’s enduring popularity makes it an optimal resource for safe infant sleep awareness building and education. To help you maximize your social impact, we’ve pulled together some high-level strategies and best-practices on social media-use, from increasing your follower base to crafting share-able social posts to measuring your success.

Understanding what causes infant deaths gives states and communities the information they need to identify focused, effective solutions. This makes infant mortality data—data that reveals the causes and contributors to death and system barriers—irreplaceable assets for any infant health improvement effort. And that makes the National Center for Fatality Review and Prevention (National CFRP) an essential partner.

This interactive E-handout helps families learn about safe sleep practices. Health professionals can sit with families and click through the pages where they’ll find different sleep scenes and environments. A series of prompts and pop-ups show what is and is not safe and inspire learning conversations. Families can also access the handout at home and use it to teach their friends and families about safe sleep.

These two resources can support state and community efforts to eliminate sleep-related infant deaths: a comprehensive literature review and specific examples of promising resources, programs and interventions states can spread and scale to reduce sleep-related infant deaths.

This image gallery was compiled in the first iteration of NAPPSS-IIN. Many people have identified the challenge of finding images for safe sleep on the internet. This page will be updated with new images as the project continues.

This image gallery was compiled in the first iteration of NAPPSS-IIN. Many people have identified the challenge of finding images for safe sleep on the internet. This page will be updated with new images as the project continues.

Founder of the Global Infant Safe Sleep Center, Stacy Scott, PhD, MPA and a team of experts compiled a list of tactics and examples to support infant safe sleep conversations.