N.C. Back to Sleep Campaign
for SIDS Risk Reduction

Overview

The N.C. Back to Sleep Campaign for SIDS Risk Reduction is a public education and awareness initiative designed to increase understanding about Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and ways to reduce its risks.

SIDS is the third leading cause of infant deaths overall, but for infants ages 1-12 months of age, SIDS is the primary cause of death. Each year in North Carolina, approximately 100 families experience the tragedy of SIDS.

Since 1994, the N.C. Back to Sleep Campaign has informed families, childcare providers, health and social service providers and policy makers about this leading cause of infant death and about steps they can take to help protect infants.

Hospital Outreach and Partnerships for Educating about Infant Safe Sleep (HOPES)

HOPES, a targeted initiative to partner with North Carolina hospitals to promote infant safe sleep and SIDS risk reduction education. HOPES promotes staff training, policy development and parent education on infant safe sleep best practices in the hopes that North Carolina's newborns will live to celebrate their first birthday.

Public/Private Partnerships

Medical and Public Health Collaborations

In October 2004, the N.C. Back to Sleep Campaign announced a new hospital outreach initiative that will look to address SIDS risk reduction and infant safety in the hospital setting and with new parents.

The N.C. Back to Sleep Campaign conducted outreach to several hospitals and medical centers in North Carolina in 2002 with a focus on training medical personnel who care for low birthweight and preterm infants in hospital neonatal intensive care units (NICU). In response to a request from the N.C. Perinatal Association, SIDS and infant sleep safety training was coupled with the targeted distribution of the booklet Keeping Babies Safe at Home: Tips for Parents and Caregivers of NICU Graduates.

Lastly, the N.C. Back to Sleep Campaign supports the work of the N.C. SIDS Program by providing technical assistance to the Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Public Health and in-service training to SIDS counselors across the state.

National and International Affiliations

The N.C. Back to Sleep Campaign manager is an active member of leading national SIDS-related organizations including the Association of SIDS and Infant Mortality Programs (ASIP) , Project Impact. and the First Candle/SIDS Alliance.

Business Partnerships

A key to the success of the N.C. Back to Sleep Campaign has been the variety of public/private partnerships developed in the past decade. These partnerships have ranged from a family-run diaper service sharing information with their customers and a variety of childcare facilities to the North Carolina Outdoor Advertising Association, the
North Carolina Pediatric Society and the
American Academy of Pediatrics.

Origin of the ITS-SIDS Project

In 2002, in response to a significant increase in SIDS deaths occurring in child care settings in the United States, the N.C. Back to Sleep Campaign launched the ITS-SIDS or Infant/Toddler Safe Sleep and SIDS Risk-Reduction in Childcare Project.

ITS-SIDS logo

Although the percentage of SIDS deaths in North Carolina's licensed childcare settings (7% of all SIDS deaths) remains lower than the national average, SIDS has accounted for two-thirds of North Carolina's child deaths in childcare settings since 1997, emphasizing the need to address infant sleep safety in childcare settings.

The ITS-SIDS Project, a collaboration between the North Carolina Healthy Start Foundation and the N.C. Division of Child Development, is a train-the-trainer program. Since the initial training in February 2003, 250 certified ITS-SIDS trainers have trained more than 30,800 licensed childcare providers throughout North Carolina. Effective May 1, 2004, the ITS-SIDS training is required for N.C. childcare providers who are licensed to care for infants 12 months of age or younger.

As a result of the ITS-SIDS training, childcare providers have implemented the required written safe sleep policies, and many have indicated that they will adopt the infant Back to Sleep positioning and safe sleep standards with their own families or will share the information with families, friends and others in their communities.

Despite significant progress, there is more to be done. SIDS-related educational gaps continue to exist for parents, for Spanish-speaking families, within institutions of higher learning such as schools of nursing and medical colleges and in early childhood education programs at universities and community colleges.

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Last updated: September 2008