African American baby sleeping

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.

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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].

Baby sleeping safely

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!

Baby sleeping

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:

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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.