Baby Sleeping

Safe Sleep 101

Welcome to NICHQ’s official guide to ensuring safe infant sleep! We’re providing you with the tools and knowledge to work toward eliminating SIDS and other sleep-related deaths. Below, you’ll find strategies and interactive resources to promote safe infant sleep guidelines, along with lessons learned to empower health professionals, community advocates, and families across the country to be champions of safe sleep. 

Arm stroking hair of sleeping baby on white surface

Resources for Parents, Families, and Caregivers

Every new person who learns about safe infant sleep is one more person who can promote safe infant sleep guidelines. Help build collective knowledge across the country by sharing safe infant sleep information using these resources:

  • Our Safe Sleep and Breastfeeding Myths and Facts are translated in 11 different languages!
  • Health professionals can use this interactive handout and video quiz to engage parents and caregivers in conversations about safe infant sleep and breastfeeding recommendations.
  • Educating childcare providers about safe sleep practices is essential. In this handout, you’ll learn the definition of SIDS and how to reduce the risk of sleep-related infant deaths, how to create a safe sleep environment, and more.
  • This helpful guide helps ensure baby registries meet safe sleep recommendations and guidelines.

Equitable Safe Sleep Strategies and Messaging

SUID rates for American Indians, Alaskan Natives, and Non-Hispanic Black babies are more than twice those of white babies. These statistics represent real families who suffer unimaginable loss—a loss that stems from the persistent effects of systemic racism on the health of families from historically marginalized communities.

Baby sleeping in crib

Past Safe Sleep Webinars

While sudden unexpected infant death (SUID) and breastfeeding are public health issues across population groups, significant disparities exist across race, ethnicity, and geography.

  • To center the lived experiences of communities, many MCH programs are shifting to community-driven work to promote safe sleep and breastfeeding, including the National Action Partnership to Promote Safe Sleep Improvement and Innovation Network (NAPPSS-IIN). This webinar discusses how the NAPPSS-IIN programmatic and evaluation pursuits shifted to center community voices within participatory quality improvement (QI). 
  • NICHQ VP of Health Equity Innovation Stacy Scott, PhD, MPA, founder of the Global Infant Safe Sleep Center, leads a series of role playing exercises where she demonstrates tactics to engage families from different backgrounds in meaningful conversations about safe sleep. These actionable skills will benefit all health professionals, human service providers, community health workers, home visitors, peer supporters and family members working to improve infant health outcomes.