HSHS St. John’s Foundation has committed $25,000 to launch a new Safe Sleep Initiative at HSHS St. John’s Children’s Hospital, giving families the equipment and education they need to protect their babies during sleep.
The program is being unveiled during October, National SIDS Awareness Month. Sudden unexpected infant death, or SUID, remains one of the leading causes of infant death in the United States, claiming the lives of more than 3,000 babies every year. Most of those deaths are preventable.
“What I really want for families and caregivers to remember is to move away from thinking about SIDS or SUID as something that is extremely rare, where we can’t really do anything about it, to thinking about it as something that is largely preventable,” said Dr. Eunice Torres, SIU Medicine neonatologist, who leads the initiative at St. John’s.
Through the Safe Sleep Initiative, St. John’s Children’s Hospital will provide items to that provide a safe sleep environment for babies, including:
- Wearable sleep sacks for babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and the newborn nursery, so families can skip loose blankets from day one.
- Fitted sheets for all NICU and nursery beds, modeling a firm, flat and bare sleep surface.
- Portable cribs (pack-and-plays) for mothers who apply and qualify, so no family has to improvise a sleep space.
- Education for parents and caregivers, including Charlie’s Kids Foundation safe sleep videos accessible by QR code and books from the Triple Heart Foundation that parents can read to their babies for bonding.
The guidance at the center of the program is simple enough to remember in the middle of the night: the ABCs of safe sleep.
“We recommend that all babies are placed A – alone to sleep. We want them B – on their backs to sleep. And we want them in their own crib – C,” Dr. Torres said. “No pillows, no toys around the baby, no blankets on top of the baby.”
Dr. Torres also noted that about one in five sudden unexpected infant deaths happen while someone other than a parent is caring for the baby, which is why the initiative’s education materials are built to be shared with grandparents, babysitters and childcare providers.
One local family shared their story of SUID and support of the Foundation to ensure that others don’t have to hear the sorrowful news of an unexpected loss of an infant. Becca Summers shared about the loss of her son Harrison, who was three months old when he was found unresponsive after being placed face-down for a nap at daycare.
Each year, HSHS St. John’s Children’s Hospital teams care for the region’s most fragile newborns as home to the region’s only Level III neonatal intensive care unit and a certified Level II Pediatric Trauma Center. The Safe Sleep Initiative is designed to keep protecting those babies after discharge.
“The Foundation is fully supporting our safe sleep program. We would love to reach every baby and every family that needs a safe sleep sack, crib or education around it,” said Ali Farmer, Director of HSHS St. John’s Foundation. “This is a way for us to extend our care in the community and really be a place that supports our babies beyond our hospital.”
