Safe Sleep Saves Lives
The KIDS Network Safe Sleep Instructor (SSI) Certification Project was created in 2015 to address the high rate of infant mortality. With sleep-related deaths being the leading cause of infant death for infants 1 month to 1 year, our long-term goal is to reduce infant mortality by increasing infant safe sleep. The SSI project aims to utilize instructors to their maximum potential, and to build collective impact to reduce sleep-related infant deaths. The overall objective of the project is to enhance the Safe Sleep Instructor Certification Project by building capacity to roll out safe sleep promotion programs developed for specific venues, including the community, hospitals and outpatient maternal and infant clinics. Our central hypothesis is that culturally sensitive education, coupled with easy to implement strategies, can build on the communities’ current work to significantly increase the number of parents/caregivers using safe sleep practices. We propose that the certified Safe Sleep Instructors program will allow the KIDS Network to expand its reach, and specifically to build nation-wide infrastructure to promote consistent infant safe sleep messages. This in turn, will help to facilitate a safe sleep culture to reduce the number of sleep-related deaths.
In the first years of the SSI project, the Kansas Infant Death and SIDS Network established a cadre of regional trainers who are now able to educate their communities about the American Academy of Pediatrics safe sleep recommendations. This train-the-trainer model provided the foundation for sustainability and expansion of the KIDS Network safe sleep campaign and created the vehicle for delivery of the KIDS Network Community Baby Shower model. The Network has worked collaboratively with the Safe KIDS, Breastfeeding Coalitions, the Tobacco Use Prevention Program, Chronic Disease Risk Reduction grantees and numerous other organizations to establish the Safe Sleep infrastructure.