Date: October 18, 2012
For more information:
Scott Coppenbarger
OU Medical Center/The Children’s Hospital at OU Medical Center
Office: (405) 271-7900 X4
Cell (405) 593-5289
scott.coppenbarger@hcahealthcare.com
THE CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL AT OU MEDICAL CENTER URGES NEW PARENTS TO FOLLOW SAFE TO SLEEP GUIDELINES
Oklahoma City- October is Sudden Infant Death Awareness Month and The Children’s Hospital at OU Medical Center is urging new parents to follow new Safe to Sleep guidelines. Safe to Sleep is an extension of the Back to Sleep Campaign which began in 1994 to encourage parents to place infants on their backs to sleep.
The Safe to Sleep campaign, led by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), aims to educate parents and health care providers about ways to reduce the risk for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and other sleep-related causes of infant death. These guidelines suggest always placing infants on their backs to sleep in their own safety approved crib with a firm mattress covered by a tightly fitted sheet, removing loose bedding and all soft objects from the crib, breast feeding infants when possible, and eliminating risks such as overheating and exposure to tobacco smoke.
According to Jessica Hill, Nursing Discharge Facilitator of Children’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), the hospital is taking measures to comply with the guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics for all medically stable infants under the age of one year.
“The infant death rates in our state related to SIDS are too high. It is important to us as an organization to be a role model of best practice. Being involved in safe sleep practices is one way we can reach out to the people we serve and let them know we care,” Hill said.
Hill was chosen by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development as a Safe to Sleep Champion for the state of Oklahoma. Visit www.nichd.nih.gov/SIDS for more recommendations on safe sleep practices.
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THE CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL AT OU MEDICAL CENTER
The Children’s Hospital at OU Medical Center has 326-inpatient beds and is the only freestanding comprehensive children's hospital in Oklahoma. The Children’s Hospital’s pediatric staff blends together years of specialized pediatric training with education, research and technology to treat conditions ranging from cardiothoracic and oncology related illnesses to neonatal specialty care and pediatric solid-organ transplants. The Children’s Hospital’s 88-bed Neonatal Intensive Care Unit provides the highest level of neonatal care in Oklahoma. The Children’s Hospital was one of the first hospitals in the country to provide total, comprehensive care for mothers and their newborns all in the same building. Additionally, the Women's & Newborn Center at The Children's Hospital provides family-centered newborn care for all types of deliveries—from routine to complicated, high-risk deliveries and offers the most comprehensive obstetrics program in the state.