BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — The Oishei Children's Hospital and Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital announced its new partnership with Top Friendly Markets on Friday to help spread the importance of safe sleep for parents and their newborns.
The Director of this initiative from Oishei Children's Hospital, Sharon Barron, estimates that 3500 babies die annually from infant mortality.
"We've been following infant mortality for many years since the 80's and infant mortality in 1994 significantly decreased to 50 percent and one of the initiatives that brought that number down thanks to the American Academy of Pediatrics."
According to experts, unsafe sleep is the leading cause of infant mortality and is 100 percent preventable.
This new partnership hopes to spread awareness for new parents by launching the "safe sleep" program and re-teaching the A-B-C's such as allowing babies to sleep alone, placing them flat on their backs, and having them sleep in a safe crib.
"In those years that we've reviewed, 80 percent of those mortalities were related to unsafe sleep conditions for infants 12 months," she said. "And less and so 60 percent of those had cribs in the homes so the A-B-C's are important and dig in more as to why families aren't putting babies back to sleep in their cribs."
Barron says safe sleep means placing babies alone with no blankets, stuffed animals, or bumpers in a crib.
"Babies are designed to be flat on their backs, and that provides the best future to hit that first birthday," the director said.
The program also includes sleep education materials for new parents and caregivers and sleep sacks given to families in both Oishei and Suburban hospitals to help encourage safe sleep.
