Improving Early and Consistent Safe Sleep Practices in the NICU: a Regional NICU Quality Improvement Project

Background: Although there has been national progress in reducing sudden unexplained infant deaths (SUID) since the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) “Back-to-Sleep” campaign in 1994, the rates of accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed (ASSB) continue to rise. The risk of ASSB is inversely related to gestational age, with those most at risk being the extremely premature. As these infants spend so much of their early lives in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), it is important for units to model safe sleep behaviors when developmentally …