Baptist Health Care Launches Efforts to Model Safe Sleeping for Newborns

11/08/2021

The Women’s Center of Baptist Health Care was awarded a $5,000 grant to purchase safe sleep swaddles newborns at Baptist Hospital Mother-Baby unit. Funded by the Baptist Health Care Foundation’s Helping Hands program, the swaddles are part of the national Safe to Sleep initiative to reduce the incidence of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and other sleep-related causes of infant death.

The National Institutes of Health cautions parents and other caregivers to place their baby to sleep in a safety-approved crib with a firm, flat surface covered with a fitted sheet and no other soft bedding such as blankets, bumper pads or stuffed animals to reduce the risk of suffocation, entrapment or strangulation. The sleep swaddles and proper swaddling methods keep babies warm without the use of blankets and other such bedding while napping or sleeping at night.

The grant funded the purchase of the swaddles for the Mother-Baby unit to provide visual reinforcement of the nursing staff’s instructions for creating a safe sleep environment. This funding allows the mothers to take home the swaddles to use with their newborn babies. Educational materials, including instructional hand-outs, door hangers, posters and crib cards, are being produced to provide parents, grandparents and other caregivers guidance in safe sleep practices.

More information about the Safe to Sleep initiative and tips for creating a safe sleep environment are available at safetosleep.nichd.nih.gov. More information about having a baby at Baptist  Hospital is available at ebaptisthealthcare.org/birth.