Back to Annual Meeting

Back to Annual Meeting

APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Ilisa Stalberg, MSS, MLSP and JoAnne Fischer, MSS. Maternity Care Coalition, 2000 Hamilton Street, Suite 205, Philadelphia, PA 19130, 215-989-3580, istalberg@MOMobile.org

Over the past decade, as a result of the AAP's Back to Sleep campaign, SIDS rates have dropped 40%. SIDS incidence in Philadelphia, however, is twice the national average, especially in African American communities. In an effort to reduce SIDS deaths, Maternity Care Coalition developed a comprehensive safe sleep education and crib distribution program serving a low-income, urban population. The program developed a unique collaboration across systems, working with public and private entities. The program has built relationships with the City's child welfare system, health department and school system, and dozens of health and social service providers, working with these agencies to provide cribs and education to families. MCC initiated a pilot program at a local hospital to train prenatal and maternity nurses and social workers on safe sleep and launched a multi-tiered public awareness campaign on SIDS risk reduction. In only sixteen months, the program educated more than 6,000 families and provided cribs to 4,000 infants. Preliminary findings from the evaluation show: more than 90% of the families in the program put their babies to sleep in a crib/portable crib; 74.8% of families usually place the baby on her/his back to sleep; and 93.3% reported that no one ever smokes in the same room as the baby.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, participants will be able to

• Understand SIDS and safe sleep in the context of a large, urban population.
• Define the elements of safe sleep education.
• Identify the components of a cross-systems comprehensive safe sleep program.

Keywords: Maternal and Child Health, SIDS

Related Web page: www.MOMobile.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation