How to reduce SIDS risks ?

Nurses have a crucial role to play in modeling and promoting safe-sleep practices, which are proven to reduce sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) risk factors. They need to counteract arguments against back sleeping with science-based reasoning. For example, « when a baby is in the back sleeping position, the trachea lies on top of the esophagus. Anything regurgitated or refluxed from the esophagus must work against gravity to be aspirated into the trachea. Conversely, when a baby is in the stomach sleeping position, anything regurgitated or refluxed will pool at the opening of the trachea, making it easier for the baby to aspirate »(1) and therefore choke.

This education needs to be culturally appropriate, modified according to the recipient’s needs and communicated in visual, verbal and written ways. Nurses need to ask what preconceived ideas the parents and their entourage may hold regarding infant sleep, such as bed-sharing, sleeping position, room temperature and clothing as well as crib bedding (blankets, bumpers…). Parents must be encouraged to insist that all who care for the infant follow the same procedures.

After a three-month neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) intervention, supine positioning by parents increased from 39 % to 83 % ; placement of infants on a firm sleeping surface increased from 5 % to 96 %, and removal of soft objects improved from 45 % to 75 %(2).

Nurses may also play a role in educating child-care providers, especially when infants often enter childcare at around 2 to 3 months of age, a critical period in their development(3).