In 2022, 19,607 infants died before their first birthday. In the past decade, sleep-related infant deaths and accidental suffocation rates have increased. To address this concerning trend, health experts have stressed the need to empower families. Dr. Milt Kotelchuck, a national maternal and child health expert, emphasized the importance of supporting parents' agency and competence in a positive manner.
Collaborating with the National Institute for Children's Health Quality, Kotelchuck worked on the Collaborative Improvement and Innovation Network to Reduce Infant Mortality. Building on the successes of this initiative, the Safe Sleep Infant Mortality CoIIN, spanning four states, focuses on improving safe sleep practices and addressing disparities in infant deaths by promoting parent/caregiver agency and self-efficacy. These organizations are helping save lives by advocating the issues around these infant deaths.
Pat Heinrich, NICHQ Executive Project Director, believes that teaching families about safe sleep is just one part of the solution. The key lies in engaging families through authentic conversations that respect their experiences, opinions, and expertise as advocates for their children's health.
Kotelchuck provides six practical tips on how you should teach families about this based on three decades of experience in maternal and child health quality improvement:
Change the Way We Talk: We must start conversations with respect, avoiding judgmental language. Highlight their successes in other areas of parenting to build positive agency.
Build on the Positive: Enhance feelings of control by encouraging activities that bring joy, simultaneously addressing sources of stress or strife. Help families develop possible plans for real-life challenges.
Encourage Self-Learning: Empower parents by supporting their initiative to ask questions and conduct research. Connect them with trusted information sources outside clinical settings, fostering a sense of preparedness and empowerment.
Focus on Fathers: Expand safe sleep initiatives to include fathers, identifying specific roles they can own in ensuring a safe environment for their babies. Develop targeted campaigns to engage fathers in homes, hospitals, and communities.
Promote Paid Family Leave: Advocate for paid family leave to alleviate the burden on parents, especially those with low incomes. This not only supports parental agency but may also address the causes of increased infant mortality rates in under-resourced communities.
Build Community Agency: Strengthen both parental and community capacity by involving various stakeholders in safe sleep awareness campaigns. Collaborate with local entities to create a collective agency focused on the health and well-being of community infants.
Recent studies have shown that community-based programs and initiatives significantly contribute to the reduction of infant mortality rates. Collaborative efforts between healthcare professionals, community leaders, and parents have proven to be effective in promoting safe sleep practices. This proves that getting the community involved is the key to making a difference.
In addition, ongoing research in behavioral science suggests that framing safe sleep discussions in a positive light and emphasizing shared responsibility can lead to more sustainable behavior change. This approach aligns with Kotelchuck's recommendation to build on the positive aspects of parents' lives while addressing challenges.
It has also been found that mobile apps, online forums, and virtual support groups provide accessible platforms for sharing information, fostering a sense of community, and addressing specific concerns parents may have about safe sleep practices.
In conclusion, the efforts to reduce sleep-related infant deaths extend beyond traditional education. By incorporating new research findings, embracing community-based strategies, leveraging technology, and emphasizing positive engagement, health care professionals can play a vital role in empowering families to drive safe sleep practices and, ultimately, reduce infant mortality rates. Feel free to check out more about this at https://nichq.org/insight/building-agency-and-self-efficacy-vital-opportunity-reduce-sleep-related-infant-deaths
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