Many parents have questions when they welcome a new baby. Are they crying because they’re hungry or hurt? Are they reaching their milestones on time? Will diaper changes ever get easier? While there aren’t always simple answers, when it comes to helping babies sleep safely, it’s as easy as remembering the ABCs: Babies should always sleep Alone on their Back in a Crib. These tips are key to preventing sleep-related deaths, often caused by sudden unexpected infant death syndrome (SUIDS), sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), or accidental suffocation and strangulation.
To ensure providers and parents are aware of these recommendations, Penn Medicine teamed up with the Maternity Care Coalition to establish The Safe Sleep Awareness for Every Well Newborn Program, or PA Safe Sleep. This program was developed in 2017 by an interdisciplinary team led by Joanne Ruggiero, MSN, RN, MA, NE-BC, CMSRN, clinical director for Women’s and Behavioral Health Services at Pennsylvania Hospital, Jessica Lazzeri, MSN, RN, NEA-BC, clinical director of Women’s Health at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Marilyn Stringer, PhD, WHNP, FAAN, program director of PA Safe Sleep and professor emeritus of Women’s Health Nursing, and Bonnie Renner Ohnishi, BSN, RNC-MNN, SAFE Project coordinator, in response to a statewide call to reduce unsafe sleep incidents.
Backed by a $1.3 million Pennsylvania Department of Health grant, the team created a roadmap for hospitals to model safe sleep programs. For example, if an excited grandparent purchases a stuffed animal for their new grandchild at the gift shop, and the parents place it beside their sleeping child, a clinician with an understanding of safe sleep concepts can quickly flag this and help the family understand the safe sleep ABCs. By changing inpatient behavior, parents can be better equipped to implement safe practices at home. In three years, PA Safe Sleep was implemented in 29 birthing hospitals across the state. This October, the team received a three-year extension and $900,000 to further share this roadmap with pediatric hospitals.
“At the end of every implementation, we analyze the hospital’s data. We’ve seen significant improvements in both overall understanding of safe sleep concepts and in-hospital safe sleep practices,” Ruggiero said. “I’m so proud of the work that we’ve done; it speaks to the power of what can happen when academia and hospital operations come together. It’s exciting to know that a project initiated by Penn Medicine has had a statewide impact.”