Initiatives

National Action Partnership to Promote Safe Sleep Improvement and Innovation Network (NAPPSS-IIN)

NAPPSS-IIN is an initiative to make infant safe sleep and breastfeeding the national norm by aligning stakeholders to test safety bundles in multiple care settings to improve the likelihood that infant caregivers and families receive consistent, evidence-based instruction about safe sleep and breastfeeding.

Status: Complete

July 2017 to June 2022

Who: Starting with five pilot hospitals in five states, the initiative will expand to include additional hospitals, social service agencies and childcare touch points across the country. An initial coalition of 70 stakeholder organizations will be expanded to support the initiative.
Funder: This project is funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration Maternal and Child Health Bureau.
Our Role: Using our unique change management approach to lead the innovation network. Activities include: providing technical assistance to states on integrating safe sleep and breastfeeding promotion efforts; providing training and resources to systems and community groups on using a conversations approach to engage families to help identify and overcome barriers in integrating safe sleep and breastfeeding; and implementing a safe infant sleep and breastfeeding safety bundle—a structured way of improving the processes of care and patient outcomes—in hospitals and other child care and social services settings.

If you are interested in learning more about this project, email: [email protected].

Get Involved

Join the NAPPSS-IIN National Coalition, a partnership of over 70 cross-sector, national level organizations that are invested in improving and reducing disparities in infant safe sleep and breastfeeding. Their collaboration is critical to disseminating common messaging and mobilizing their constituencies to make safe sleep and breastfeeding a national norm.

Interested in becoming a member of our growing expertise base through the National Coalition? Email us at [email protected] with your interest to join.

We welcome professional associations, and manufacturers that provide goods and services to infant caregivers, as well as many other types of national organizations.

The National Action Plan

The National Action Plan, is a guiding document of strategies and actions to help the NAPPSS-IIN Coalition support safe infant sleep and breastfeeding. Right now, four National Action Teams are working together to drive measurable change in four priority areas.

Childcare and early education settings: ensure that childcare facilities are aligned with AAP guidelines
Public media and media relations: spread a common message that integrates safe sleep and breastfeeding practices
Aligning national efforts: support the spread and sustainability of national and local efforts that can lead to systems-level change
Developing conversation modules: support a conversational approach between providers and infant caregivers

If you are already a member of the National Coalition, we encourage you to join a National Action Team!

Stay Connected

Interested in staying informed as the work progresses? Click here to view recent updates from participating teams, new resources and highlights about our partners. Stay connected by signing up for our Friends of NAPPSS-IIN Newsletter and you’ll get these updates delivered right to your mailbox:

Frequently Asked Questions

We've created a document that addresses the frequently asked questions (FAQ) about the project. We will keep this FAQ updated on a regular basis. You are also welcome to email us with any questions, or join our "Friends of NAPPSS-IIN" email list (see "Get Involved", above) to keep up to date on the initiative.

Helpful Resources

We've curated several resources for those working on safe sleep and breastfeeding.

Executive Summary
Project Charter
Learning modules: Building on Campaigns with Conversations: An Individualized Approach to Helping Families Embrace Safe Sleep and Breastfeeding
Checklist: Modeling Safe Practices: A Checklist for Infant Sleep & Breastfeeding Images
Checklist: Safe Infant Sleep and Breastfeeding Support: What to Consider When Looking for Child Care
Self-Assessment: Supporting Safe Infant Sleep and Optimal Breastfeeding Practices: An Organizational Self-Assessment
Safe Sleep and Breastfeeding Image Gallery

Related Resources and Insights

How Safe Sleep Savvy Are You?

Physicians, nurses, home visitors and other public health professionals can use this video quiz as an interactive, visual tool to prompt discussions around best-practices for infant sleep.

Conversations Can Stop Sleep-Related Infant Deaths

To help reduce sleep-related infant deaths, Founder of the Global Infant Safe Sleep Center, Stacy Scott, PhD, MPA and a team of experts compiled a list of tactics and examples to support infant safe sleep conversations. Each strategy responds to a real-life example from health professionals across the country.

Bedsharing, Breastfeeding and Babies Dying: A Conversation Worth Having

Bedsharing can lead to longer breastfeeding duration. It also leads to more infant deaths. These opposing facts represent a major dilemma for those working to improve infant health. What does it mean when strategies that put babies in danger also support behaviors that improve outcomes? In this article, Lori Feldman-Winter, MD, MPH, FAAP, a pediatrician and safe sleep and breastfeeding expert, provides some answers.

How Do We Address Safe Sleep Disparities? Start by Building Trust

Healthy babies shouldn’t die in their sleep. But, despite decades of trying to reduce the number of sudden unexpected infant deaths (SUID) they still persist. And most often, their persistence affects families of color. In this article, Founder of the Global Infant Safe Sleep Center, Stacy Scott, shares ideas on how we can best address this alarming lack of equity and reduce sleep-related deaths across all populations.

Ignoring Safe Sleep Progress Risks Increasing Unsafe Sleep Deaths

A recent American Academy of Pediatrics article concluded that, due to national SUID rates stagnation, states needed to re-examine their efforts to improve safe-sleep practices. We couldn’t agree more that these statistics invite increased focus on sleep-related deaths. However, along with understanding where progress has stalled, there is much to learn from progress that has been made and take steps to leverage those successes.