AAP partners with hospitals on safe infant sleeping initiative

The AAP has partnered with five hospitals on a new, multi-year initiative meant to assist parents in creating safe sleeping environments for their infants.

The AAP selected the five hospitals as recipients of the inaugural Community Partnership Approaches for Safe Sleep (CPASS) initiative. They are Rush Children’s Hospital in Chicago; Children’s Hospital of Alabama in Birmingham; Golisano Children’s Hospital in Rochester, New York; OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland, Oregon; and Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock.

Plans call for the hospitals and neighboring community organizations to jointly develop parent education resources and strategies that are culturally and linguistically appropriate for each community.

Programming at the hospitals will focus on families in traditionally under-resourced communities, as the AAP reported in a press release that sleep-related deaths have “notable racial and ethnic disparities, with non-Hispanic Blacks and American Indian and Alaskan Native infants experiencing sleep-related deaths at a rate two times that of non-Hispanic white infants.” “Overall, poverty is associated with a disproportionately high risk of suffocation-related deaths, as lack of an appropriate sleep space often leads to bed sharing, which is a leading cause of infant suffocation,” the AAP said.

“Being a parent of a new baby is a wonderful experience, but it can also be overwhelming to parents who are trying to help their baby to sleep,” AAP President Lee Savio Beers, MD, FAAP, said in the release. “Equipping parents with practical strategies to help their babies sleep safely, as well as offering cribs and other safe sleep products, is an innovative way to connect with parents at this critical stage for their family.”

Beers said Amazon had agreed to a multi-year commitment to support the new initiative.

“One of the top three causes of death in infants in Alabama every year is sleep-related death,” Jennifer McCain, MD, FAAP, assistant professor of pediatric emergency medicine at Children's of Alabama and the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said in the release. “We welcome this opportunity to work with the AAP and Amazon along with community partners in Birmingham to help prevent sleep-related deaths in our urban community. This cooperative program sharing expert advice regarding safe sleep practices and providing safe sleep gear will help families rest more comfortably knowing their infants are sleeping safely.”

In addition to the educational programs, the AAP said hospitals and community-based organizations will give all participating parents cribs, bedding and other gear approved for infant sleeping, all supplied by Amazon and paid for by the AAP. An AAP spokesperson said in an email that the distribution would be through the nonprofit Cribs for Kids, which works with partners nationwide to distribute Cribettes and other safe sleep gear to families who need assistance.

"There are few things we can say are 100% preventable. Infant deaths from unsafe sleeping conditions is one such thing,” Elizabeth Murray, DO, MBA, FAAP, faculty director for child health and safety communication at Golisano Children’s Hospital, said in the release. “Parents need to know that products advertised for babies are actually safe for babies and that is why this initiative is critical for the safety of infants everywhere."