Nursery Focuses on Safe Sleep for Infants

This story appear in the Spring 2014 issue of Heart to Heart, which can found online by clicking here. 

COVINGTON - While pastel-hued crib bumpers and plush creatures look cozy next to sleeping infants, the American Academy of Pediatrics wants parents to understand that they are potential lethal hazards to sleeping babies.

Their recommendation? Remove the bumpers, puffy blankets and other soft objects from cribs.

“A crib with soft items and blankets is not safe,” said Diana Brovold RN MSN, director of women and children’s services at St. Tammany Parish Hospital.

STPH is participating in a nationwide public-education effort by the National Institute of Health’s Safe to Sleep campaign to promote safe sleep environments for all infants.

The hospital has developed new evidence-based policies following the program’s guidelines to boost awareness among patients and caregivers of what a safe sleep environment for babies looks like.

It’s a message that challenges the popular idea of a soft, cozy crib for babies. Pillows, toys and other soft objects should be removed from the crib, according to the campaign, while babies should be dressed in a sleeper and placed on their backs on a firm mattress with a fitted sheet.

STPH’s new policies, developed and introduced throughout 2013, include hospital nurses addressing the sleep environment with new mothers preparing to return home after delivery. Classes for parents-to-be include components on safe sleep practices, while brochures given to new parents include illustrations of what a safe sleep environment should look like, Brovold said.

The STPH Nurse Family Partnership also discusses safe sleep with the new mothers it serves.

The message extends beyond the crib itself. The nationwide Safe to Sleep initiative — formerly known as Back to Sleep — also warns of the dangers of co-sleeping with an infant and second-hand smoke from cigarettes in an infant’s sleep environment.

The Back to Sleep campaign has helped reduce the rate of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, or SIDS, by improving public awareness of the importance of placing infants on their backs to sleep. The national rate of SIDS dropped by more than 50 percent in the 1990s after the Back to Sleep campaign began.

“It’s a new approach that is really about changing our mind-set about what a baby’s sleep environment should look like,” Brovold said. 

Click here for more information on the National Institute of Health’s Safe to Sleep campaign.

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 A full-service acute care facility committed to providing world-class healthcare and the latest technology, St. Tammany Parish Hospital delivers today’s life-improving procedures with the utmost care to area residents with emphasis on wellness, preventive care and disease management close to home. STPH is a self-supporting not-for-profit community hospital; it receives no tax funding. STPH.org