This weeks marks safer sleep week, so I am writing about teaching about safer sleep for your newborn babies.
I know that greater awareness of safer sleep leads to a decrease in the numbers of babies dying.
Sadly around 3 babies a week still die from sudden infant death Syndrome (SIDS) in the UK (Lullaby Trust). If all parents were aware of safer sleep advice and practises we could save many lives. For most up-to-date research and recommendations, I point parents towards the Lullaby Trust or BASIS.
How to integrate teaching about safer sleep into your class?
Many parents are worried and/or unsure about clothing layers and safer sleep. I usually start off with my “dressing your baby” activity. Each parent/family unit has a baby doll or made their own towel baby. Then I have either a variety of baby clothing and accessories spread out on a table or floor in the middle of the room or, when social distancing was required, I had individual washbags for each family unit with
- baby grow
- long sleeve vest
- short sleeve vests
- scratch mittens
- hat
- socks/booties
- cardigan
- blanket
Then, each family unit receives a random weather/temperature scenario card. Each family is then to discuss the scenario, choose an appropriate outfit and dress their doll in it. Once finished, each family would present their choices and share what they chose how they decided on the outfit. This usually leads into a discussion about layers and overheating and how you can tell your baby is not too cold/hot. I hand out this clothing layers guide.
Then we discuss sleeping arrangements and what may be a practical choice for them by looking at my size comparison chart.
After that we look at the safer sleep recommendations by the lullaby trust and put our babies safely to bed (I usually use a piece of flipchart paper to represent the cot mattress). If I have the equipment in at the venue I show this video before they put their baby doll to bed:
If I don’t have the equipment I ask them if they could download and look at the BASIS App before the session and watch the video above.
Alternative safer sleep teaching ideas
Alternatively, I have used the “make a room” and “spot the risk” by the lullaby trust (free) before. However, I have stopped using these as I am focussing on reinforcing truths and positive practise. Therefore, I have removed images containing less safe, unsafe or dangerous content. This approach comes from my hypnobirthing practice as well as my early years work with “Empowering Parents, Empowering Communities” (EPEC). I have also updated all the “true” and “false” quizzes I use to only contain true information/statements, to reinforce these.
Teaching about safer sleep online
In an online setting I am using my “dressing your baby” powerpoint for online learning. I have each family in their private zoom room (breakout room) and using google slides, each of them has access to their own slide. i.e. breakout room #1 works on slide #1 etc. Each slide has a different scenario as a background and clients can move the clothes around.
For the other tasks as above, I ask them to bring along a selection of baby clothes if they have any or just describe to us how and where their baby would sleep most safely…
Sources and Further reading
- Baby Sleep Info Sources (BASIS): https://www.basisonline.org.uk/
- The Lullaby Trust: https://www.lullabytrust.org.uk/