Safe Sleep campaign seeks to end infant deaths

HARLEM (WABC) -- New York City is launching a new campaign to increase awareness among parents and other caregivers about the potentially fatal risks of sharing a bed with an infant.

Every year an average of 48 infants die from a preventable sleep-related injury. Between 2004 and 2011, the majority of infant injury deaths were sleep-related. While the rate of SIDS cases has gone down in the last decade, the number of infant deaths from a sleep-related injury has not changed in the past several years.

At the core of the new campaign is a renewed effort by City-run health facilities to increase education on infant safe sleep practices to parents and caregivers during the prenatal and postpartum period.

"Many parents may not know that sharing a bed and other unsafe sleep practices put babies at risk," said New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. "We must step up efforts to make families aware of the importance of safe sleep practices, including placing your baby on her back, alone in a crib, keeping excessive bedding and other soft objects out of the crib, and keeping a smoke-free home."

The campaign also aims to increase awareness among parents about how to prevent injuries and deaths associated with other unsafe sleep practices, such as excessive bedding, bumpers and toys in cribs.

Since 2007, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has partnered with the Cribs for Kids Program to provide cribs for eligible families. Through the Nurse Family Partnership and Newborn Home Visiting programs, families receive safe sleep education and, if needed, are provided with a crib. To date, more than 35,000 families have received safe sleep education and 4,600 cribs have been provided to families.

"The first months of parenting are stressful and might lead to loving, but unsafe, practices. We can help parents by making information and resources available to support best sleep practices," said Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Lilliam Barrios-Paoli.

The new Safe Sleep Campaign also includes an educational campaign for subways, buses, taxis, and social media to raise awareness of this problem in communities around the city.

Approximately 80 percent of all infant deaths that are due to injury are related to the infant's sleep position and environment. These deaths, commonly referred to as sleep-related, are also among the most preventable.

These guidelines should be followed:

For more information about how to keep your baby safe, search "infant sleep" at nyc.gov. New Yorkers can also call 311 to order safe sleep magnets, available in English, Spanish, Creole, Chinese and French.