by Emily Schuster Wachsberger

INFANT MORTALITY Awareness Month is observed nationally every September. In Michigan, Governor Rick Snyder has fine-tuned that designation and proclaimed September as Infant Safe Sleep Awareness Month.

Each year in Michigan we are losing approximately 140 infants due to causes that are preventable. Sudden Unexpected Infant Death, or SUID, is Michigan’s leading cause of preventable infant death.  Nationally (including MI), this statistic translates to well over 5,000 infants who will not complete their first years of life because they were placed in unsafe sleeping environments.  These are staggering statistics, ones that need to change so that in the future no baby dies due to accidental suffocation.

Most deaths due to SUID occur between 2 and 4 months of age, with a higher prevalence during cold weather. African-American infants are twice as likely and Native American infants are about three times more likely to die of SUID than Caucasian infants. More boys than girls fall victim to SUID.  Smoking, drinking, and drug use during pregnancy; poor prenatal care; prematurity or low birth weight; mothers younger than 20; tobacco smoke exposure following birth; overheating from excessive sleepwear and bedding, and stomach sleeping are all contributing risk factors in these deaths.

For years parents were told that the perfect infant bedroom included cribs with bumper pads, quilts, numerous stuffed animals, and a pillow.  Many of us read articles about how important it was to co-sleep with our babies so that they could feel more secure and loved, particularly after nursing.  We believed that a short nap with our babies on the couch or lounge chair couldn’t hurt.

Let us also remember when we were told that smoking wasn’t harmful and in fact could be a therapeutic treatment for asthma.  In the same way that we now know about smoking and how harmful it is for our health, we also have new research on what constitutes a dangerous infant sleeping environment.   In 1992 the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) issued its first infant safe sleep recommendation, the “Back to Sleep” campaign.  It asserted that our babies should sleep on their backs instead of their tummies to prevent sudden infant death.  This information alone helped to reduce infant deaths by 50% across the United States.  A lot of progress was made to end these deaths.  The SUID numbers in Michigan fell from 10.7 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 8.3 per 1,000 live births in 1995.  Unfortunately since then the numbers have remained stagnant in Michigan. In the past few years the numbers, which are already above the national statistics, are actually beginning to creep upwards.

In 2011 the AAP expanded its Safe Sleep recommendations to also include the following:

• Never put the baby to sleep with adults or other children as this practice exponentially increases the chance of a tragedy occurring.
• Put babies in cribs of their own, never on adult beds, pillows, or couches.
• Use a firm mattress with a tightly fitted sheet.
• Ensure that the crib does not contain extraneous items — including pillows, crib bumpers, and stuffed animals – and use a safe sleep sack instead of blankets.
• Place the baby to sleep on his or her back, not on the stomach or side.
• Do not overheat the baby.
• Make certain that no one smokes around the baby.

In an easy-to-remember framework, we have firm research that states that for babies to be safe when sleeping, they need to be Alone, on their Backs and in a Crib.  It seems as simple as “ABC” and it should be, but many people ignore these principles, believing instead that a SUID death won’t happen to them.

For more information on baby product safety, go to the Product Safety Commission product recall website link, http://www.cpsc.gov/en/Recalls/.

Throughout Michigan people of all political beliefs are committed to ending infant deaths due to unsafe sleeping circumstances.  We are exploring ways to better impart the message in such a way that all caregivers (parents, daycare providers, grandparents, and other family members) will utilize recommended Safe Sleep practices.  Having a new baby is a joyous occasion. In that spirit, we ask that during September, Infant Safe Sleep Awareness Month, and beyond, you “Take the Pledge” to support, practice, and spread the Safe Sleep message.