October is Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Awareness Month

During the month of October, the Safe to Sleep®campaign, formerly known as the Back to Sleep campaign, is highlighted to help educate millions of caregivers—parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, babysitters, child care providers, health care providers, and others—about ways to reduce the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and other sleep-related causes of infant death.

Through outreach activities, collaborations, and partnerships, Safe to Sleep® has helped to spread safe sleep messages to millions of people in communities throughout the world. In addition, research supported and conducted by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) has broadened our scientific understanding of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

What first began as the Back to Sleep Campaign in 1994, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development created a partnership of organizations to create the Safe to Sleep campaign to educate parents and caregivers about ways to reduce the risk of SIDS. The Safe to Sleep® campaign builds on the successes of Back to Sleep to address SIDS and other sleep-related causes of infant death and to continue spreading safe sleep messages to members of all communities.

Since the start of the campaign, SIDS rates in the United States have decreased by almost 50%.Unfortunately, SIDS remains the leading cause of death for U.S. infants 1 month to 1 year of age. African Americans are at highest risk for experiencing SIDS; There is still much work to do.

For more information, click this link: https://safetosleep.nichd.nih.gov