Georgia Public Health Launches “Safe to Sleep” Program

The Georgia Department Of Public Health is launching a new campaign designed to help new mothers keep their babies safe.

It’s called the Safe To Sleep program.

The program is designed to protect infants from sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and other sleep-related causes of death.

According to Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald, Commissioner, Georgia Department Of Public Health, Georgia averages about three infant deaths per week due to sleep-related causes and nearly 90 percent of those deaths happen in the first six months of a baby’s life.

“These are deaths are preventable,” she said. “There are still some unexplained deaths, but a whole of deaths we previously put in that category we actually understand what it is. And it’s because babies were not in a safe environment.”
Fitzgerald says many of those deaths could have been prevented by following the ABC’s of safe sleep, Alone, Back, Crib.

“That means babies are alone, on their back and in a crib. The alone part is especially important because 60% of the babies we lose in Georgia were because they are sleeping with an adult. The baby was either in a bed, or on a sofa or in a lounge sleeping with an adult. So we’re really encouraging mothers to put that baby down in a crib before they go to sleep,” Fitzgerald explained.

Fitzgerald says one of the measures her department is taking is to send mother and baby home from the hospital with a couple of different safety items.

“There’s instruction at the hospital. The nurses are trained to make sure they’re giving that ABC message. Plus, every single mother in Georgia is being sent home with a little board book you can read to your baby that has that message. And they will also have a little sleep gown that says on the front, “this side up” and on the back it says, “please turn me over,” Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald said all Medicaid babies are also being sent home with a portable crib to remind mothers to put their new babies in the crib beside them and not in the bed or on the sofa with them.

To learn more about the safe to sleep program, you can go online to www.GeorgiaSafetoSleep.org.