Baltimore City Health Department

ABC’s of Safe Sleep Initiative

Overview

Update 7/15/10: See our B'more for Healthy Babies page for our strategy to improve birth outcomes in Baltimore City!

From 2002-2006, 89 Baltimore City infants died unexpectedly while sleeping. Eighty-one of these infants (91%) were in unsafe sleeping environments (Baltimore City Health Data Snapshot, September 17, 2007). An unsafe sleeping environment includes:

Sleeping on stomach or side (particularly among infants who cannot yet roll over); or
Co-sleeping infant sleeping in a bed or couch with another person; or
Soft bedding, toys or soft objects under or around the infant during sleep; or
No crib available or improper use of crib; or
Smoking in the house

In response to the alarming number of deaths, the Health Department’s, Division of Maternal and Child Health is implementing a multi-faceted approach to improving sleeping environments and practices for infants. This approach includes addressing the problem of unsafe sleep by:

Launching a Safe Sleep Campaign on September 17, 2007 consisting of public service announcements (PSAs) on WERQ-92.3FM and posters in bus shelters. WJZ-TV 13 Baltimore also featured the campaign in a story, "Group Wants to Eliminate SIDS," that aired on September 25, 2007.
Providing Safe Sleep training to Obstetric/Labor & Delivery staff at all birthing hospitals in Baltimore
Distributing “onesies” with Safe Sleep messaging and safe sleep education
Distributing free cribs to pregnant women and women with young babies through the Baltimore City Crib Fund