Critical infant safe sleep knowledge

'The vast majority of these deaths are preventable.'

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Over the last three years covering early learning and development, I’ve become too familiar with a troubling set of numbers:

• Though North Carolina’s infant mortality rate has fallen in the last 20 years, it’s still the 13th highest in the country.
• While the overall rate has fallen, the disparity between Black and white babies has slightly increased.
• Black babies are 2.67 times more likely to die in the first year of life than white babies.

At the most recent Child Fatality Task Force meeting, I was refreshed to hear about work being done to change these realities. Safe Sleep NC, an initiative from the Collaborative for Maternal and Infant Health (CMIH) at UNC-Chapel Hill, trains health providers and organizations and provides materials to families on how to ensure babies have safe sleeping environments.

It turns out that deaths related to unsafe sleeping environments are the third leading cause of infant mortality and the leading cause in the postneonatal period (months 2-12), accounting for 121 deaths in North Carolina babies’ first years of life in 2020. It’s also a driver of the disparity: Black babies were twice as likely to die from causes related to unsafe sleeping.

“The vast majority of these deaths are preventable,” said Erin McClain, assistant director and research associate at CMIH.

The group is requesting $250,000 in annual recurring legislative funds, which the task force is supporting in recommendations to the governor and legislature. McClain said this level of funding would allow a “multi-pronged approach,” providing more intensive training to social service and health care organizations, ensuring birthing facilities are educating families about safe sleep, testing what kinds of education work best for high-risk families, and tailoring educational materials to specific communities.

“Providers, organizations, and communities want to do more to support safe sleep,” she said. “This funding would help us provide a statewide comprehensive approach to make sleep safer for every North Carolina baby.”

Below, don’t miss research on the pandemic’s continued shaping of the child care industry, and a call for preschool investments to reduce incarceration and increase public safety.

As always, I’m eager to hear your questions and story ideas. As EdNC strives to get to know communities across our state more intimately, I’m specifically looking for stories and contacts in these counties: Polk, Pender, New Hanover, Craven, Jones, Onslow, and Chowan. Let’s connect.