On October 13th, nearly 150 people from the St. Louis region and around Missouri gathered for FLOURISH’s annual Safe Sleep Summit. Most attendees represented a hospital or community-based organization, and the event was well attended by FLOURISH’s grant funded partners, some of whom are implementing community-based safe sleep education.
The summit kicked off with an engaging activity to test participant’s knowledge of safe sleep environments. Check out the slides and see if you can correctly guess what is and is not a safe sleeping environment for baby.
The summit featured presentations from Dr. Eve Colson who presented research on safe sleep interventions and the use of social media to engage families in learning safe sleep and breastfeeding recommendations to reduce the risk of infant death from unsafe sleep environments.
The Summit also spotlighted two local organizations, SSM Health’s Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital and Infant Loss Resources and their respective programs to provide safe sleep education and resources for families, like portable cribs, pacifiers and wearable blankets.
Attendees learned the ABC’s of sleep: that babies sleep best when they are alone, on their back and in a crib. We also learned a few more letters in the alphabet too- don’t smoke around your infant and every time baby sleeps is an opportunity to practice the ABCDE guidelines of safe sleep.
Lori Winkler from Cardinal Glennon shared a new project supported by a FLOURISH Aligned Activities grant which trains first responders to be safe sleep champions to empower these front-line professionals to know the basics of safe sleep and to support families in accessing the resources they need to keep their little ones safe.
During the summit, we also recognized our newest Safe Sleep Champion organization, GIFT. An organization that supports families with critically ill newborns by providing education and resources, we are thrilled to welcome them into the community of Safe Sleep Champions!
If you missed this event and want to watch the recording, please view it here.
Here are the resources mentioned throughout the Summit:
- 2019 Child Fatality Review Report– Includes statistics about childhood death in Missouri in 2019. This report is updated annually.
- Today’s Baby – This includes videos and other materials that can be distributed to families via text messages or emails. To learn more about the program, contact: Nicole Geller – nls@bu.edu
- Baby’s Airway/Esophagus Visual
Here are websites/contact information for each of our speakers if you want to learn more about an individual program:
- Eve Colson, Washington University School of Medicine- eve.colson@wustl.edu
- Vikki Collier, Infant Loss Resources– vikki@infantlossresources.org
- Lori Winkler, SSM Health Cardinal Glennon- Safe Kids St. Louis– winkler@ssmhealth.com
Here are ways to become more involved with FLOURISH St. Louis:
- Safe Sleep Champion Training- November 17- 10:00am-11:30am- Register Here
- Safe Sleep Champion Organization Recognition Program- Apply Here
- Portable Crib Distribution Partner Listing
- Safe Sleep First Meetings, First Wednesday of the Month, 4:00-5:00- Contact Bea Stinebring(Stinebring@nursesfornewborns.org) tobe added to the email list.
Here are additional resources to obtain print materials about safe sleep:
- NICHD Printable Resources
- Missouri Children’s Trust Fund- Free Resources to Order
We hope you will join us in October 2022 for the next safe sleep summit!
