Say YES to Safe Sleep for Babies is a new educational program designed to reduce the risk of injury or death of infants while sleeping, reports the Herald-Mail Media.
The program, Say YES to Safe Sleep for Babies, is in response to the fact that the leading cause of injury-related death for West Virginia infants younger than 1 is suffocation and strangulation in an adult bed or other unsafe sleep surface.
According to the WV Child Fatality Review Team, 38 infant deaths in 2013 were attributed to unsafe sleep practices.
“Berkeley Medical Center, which is also certified by Cribs for Kids as a National Safe Sleep Hospital, is participating in the Safe Sleep For Babies Campaign so we can assist in increasing the visibility and delivery of consistent infant safe-sleep messages to our expectant parents, other family members and the community,” Clarise Ottley, nursing director of the mother/baby unit, said in a news release. “We also want to educate our families and the public of the importance of adopting infant safe sleep practices and ways to prevent injury and death of babies associated with unsafe sleep practices.”
