Transcription:
Safe Sleep for Infants

Intro: This is Hello Healthy, a Dignity Health podcast.

Caitlin Whyte: Welcome back to Hello Healthy. I'm your host, Caitlin Whyte. And today, we're discussing Memorial Hospital's safe sleep certification and how to keep your baby safe at night. Joining us is Bettina Kinsman, the Memorial Hospital NICU manager. Now, Bettina, Dignity Health Memorial Hospital has achieved safe sleep certification. Tell us more about that.

Bettina Kinsman, RNC-NIC: Safe sleep certification is a certification that we've gotten through Cribs for Kids, which is a national safe sleep hospital program. And what we have done is made sure that all of our nurses and all of the areas that take care of children, the emergency department, pediatrics, pediatric ICU, neonatal intensive care, labor and delivery, family care have all been educated on how to sleep kids safely, which is on their back. And we have policies that go with that and we do continuing education to make sure that everybody keeps that in mind. And we model that in the hospital for all patients that are eligible for safe sleep, to make sure that the parents know what that means and how to do that.

Caitlin Whyte: So what are some common sleep myths that parents should know about?

Bettina Kinsman, RNC-NIC: A lot of parents believe that babies will choke if they're laying on their back. And that is a myth if they spit up and mostly because the anatomy of your airway is such that babies protect their airway. If, you know, food comes up or they have mucus, that that tends to be swallowed instead of getting into their lungs. So that's why parents think, "Oh no, I should, you know, sleep my baby on their stomach. If they spit up, it won't, you know, go into their lungs." But honestly, the myth is if they're on their stomach, they do tend to get food into their lungs worse than if they were on their backs.

Caitlin Whyte: And what should parents avoid placing in their newborn's sleep areas?

Bettina Kinsman, RNC-NIC: The only thing that should be in the newborn sleep area is the newborn. No toys, no pillows, no blankets, even the bumper on the crib. You know, some people have that really pretty little bumper on the inside and that if it's loose and your baby moves to the side of the bed, they can get under it. It's, you know, secured there and they can't get away from it. Even small babies can turn over or turn partially over, but that doesn't mean they can get back. So if they get up against something that is stationary or bigger than they are or fluffy, then they can't get away from it and they can, you know, suffocate.

Caitlin Whyte: Now, I'm sure new moms love to sleep with their babies, but why is that actually a bad idea for a baby to be in bed with mom?

Bettina Kinsman, RNC-NIC: Babies can sleep or, you know, be in the bed with their mom if they're breastfeeding and then they need to go back to their own bed. Because again, if they get up against their mother and they can't turn their head and they can't move away from her, they will suffocate. Babies do move around a lot. I mean, they're little wiggles. And when they move around, if they get up against her and she's exhausted, new moms are exhausted, babies don't sleep very much, then they may not notice that their baby's in trouble because they move around, that's what they do. And if she's sound asleep and she's not, you know, conscious enough to say, "Uh-oh, my baby has a problem," babies get up against their mom and they suffocate.

Caitlin Whyte: Now, you touched on this already a bit, but we often hear that back is best. Can you tell us a bit more about what that means?

Bettina Kinsman, RNC-NIC: That just means that babies should be placed on their back for every sleep during the first year of their life. And babies will turn over. At some point, they will be able to turn over and then they will be able to turn back over. But for the majority, you know, of their first year, they need to be placed on the back position until they are putting themselves where they want to be by themselves, because we want to make sure that they're always safe. And SIDS, the incidence does go down after a year. So we want to make sure that that's a whole year that they're laying on their back for as many sleeps as they go down for. And then if they turn over by themselves, then that decreases their risks because they're much more mobile.

Caitlin Whyte: Now, this is so much good information, Bettina. What steps have you and your staff at Memorial Hospital taken to educate new parents on these safe sleep practices?

Bettina Kinsman, RNC-NIC: Every employee in all of the areas who deal with children is specifically trained on how to keep their baby safe, for parents to keep their babies safe. So labor and delivery, family care,; NICU, the neonatal intensive care; the PICU, pediatric intensive care; pediatrics and the emergency department where we see infants, all nurses are trained on what to teach parents, nothing in the bed with the baby.

We model that when the baby's in the hospital. So after they reach 34 weeks' gestation, if they were born younger than that, and after they're greater than 1500 grams, we put them on their back to sleep. Nothing in their crib, no positioning aids, no big blankets, so that we can teach the parents and also show them how to keep their baby safe while they're sleeping

Caitlin Whyte: Well, wrapping up here, Bettina, is there anything else you'd like to share about safe sleep with us?

Bettina Kinsman, RNC-NIC: People can go to the Cribs for Kids website and they can also go to the Bakersfield Memorial Hospital website to find out more information if they have any questions on safe sleep.

Caitlin Whyte: Well, thank you so much, Bettina, for sharing with us and for all the work you do. Find out more about us online at dignityhealth.org/bakersfield. You can also find more interesting and informative podcasts in our podcast library and be sure to share them with your loved ones. This has been Hello Healthy, a Dignity Health podcast. I'm Caitlin Whyte. Stay well.