Kent State Trumbull Partners With Trumbull Memorial Hospital to Promote Sleep Safety

Students and faculty from Kent State University at Trumbull’s nursing program recently presented Sleep Sacks ™ for newborns at Trumbull Memorial Hospital. Kent State Trumbull’s Student Nurses Association and faculty raised money to purchase the sleep sacks for the babies born in the community. A sleep sack replaces loose blankets in the crib so that a baby can stay covered and be protected against the chance of a blanket covering a baby’s face and disrupting its breathing.
 
Over the last year, Kent State Trumbull and its nursing faculty have focused on ways they can promote sleep safety in an effort to reduce the region’s infant mortality rate.
 
Ohio has one of the nation’s highest rates at just over 7.4 percent. The infant mortality rate in Trumbull County is slightly above the state average (7.6 percent) and in Mahoning County it is below (6 percent). By providing Sleep Sacks, holding awareness events and adding safe sleep instruction to nursing curriculum, Kent State Trumbull faculty hope to see these numbers decrease.   
  
“We commend Kent State Trumbull for bringing additional awareness to the importance of implementing sleep safety,” says Marsha LaPolla, director of women’s services at Trumbull Memorial Hospital. “Taking the necessary steps to provide a safe environment for newborns is crucial. We work with our local obstetricians to encourage our parents to attend Trumbull’s free pregnancy education classes that we offer. We also provide literature and educate our patients before they are discharged.”
 
According to the Ohio Department of Health, “Every week in Ohio, three babies die in unsafe sleep environments. Sleep-related infant deaths are among the most preventable infant deaths by practicing the ABCs of safe sleep — place babies Alone, on their Back, in a Crib.” 

For more information about sleep safety for infants, visit the American Academy of Pediatrics website.

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