What do parents need to know about safe sleep and breastfeeding?

Background: Most safe sleep guidance for parents mandates strict adherence to a solitary sleeping arrangement for the infant. Resources declare “Do not bedshare” without including information on circumstances that result in unsafe bedsharing and without helpful guidelines for making bedsharing safer. Safe sleep guidance regarding breastfeeding and bedsharing are very important given the: 1) positive correlation between breastfeeding and bedsharing, 2) importance of day and night frequency to breastfeeding success, 3) protective effect of breastfeeding against SIDS, and 4) data showing that on any given night bedsharing prevalence in the US is greater than 40%.

Methods: A systematic literature review was followed by a qualitative content and thematic analysis of messaging to parents. Key informant interviews and mini-focus groups will be carried out to assess what is understood from current and revised messaging.

Results/Discussion: Data collection for the thematic analysis stopped short of informational redundancy, resulting in 23 independent web-based sources of information. Some notable findings include that: five of the 23 sites did not contain any information about breastfeeding in SIDS prevention. Three of the twenty sites only mentioned breastfeeding in the context of pacifier use. Regarding bedsharing, only two of the 23 sites gave parents any guidelines for making bedsharing safer. All of the other sites only stated “do not share sleep surfaces.” Additional results from the systematic literature review, focus groups, key informant interviews, and the resulting book and toolkit for health and community workers will be presented.