Breastfeeding and Safe to Sleep Campaign Update
October is SIDS, Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month. In May 2014, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), part of the National Institutes of Health, hosted a meeting with key stakeholders from the breastfeeding community and the Safe to Sleep® campaign to determine the best strategies to promote safe infant sleep and breastfeeding messages. As a result of the meeting, the NICHD has updated Safe to Sleep® campaign materials to include images of (1) breastfeeding and (2) room sharing where baby’s separate sleep area is right next to where the mom is sleeping, in all illustrations of a safe infant sleep environment. Moving forward, campaign materials will not show the baby sleeping in a room alone. NICHD plans to reconvene an informal meeting with the breastfeeding leaders who participated in the May meeting. Additionally, NICHD is exploring current/future NICHD-funded research around breastfeeding and safe infant sleep practices.