Infant safe sleep: efforts to improve education and awareness.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2011), more than 4,500 infants die annually in the United States of no apparent cause of death. These deaths are defined as sudden unexplained infant deaths (SUID). Half of these SUIDs are because of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). SIDS is defined as the sudden death of an infant less than 1 year of age that remains unexplained after a thorough case investigation, autopsy, examination of the death scene, and review of clinical history (Willinger, James, & Catz, 1991). Despite national programs and public health education, SIDS remains one of the three leading causes of infant death accounting for 8% of all infant deaths (Matthews & MacDorman, 2011) and is the leading cause of deaths among infants 1–12 months of age (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011). In an effort to decrease the risk and incidence of SIDS, in 1992, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Task Force on Infant Positioning and SIDS recommended that infants lay in a nonprone position for sleep (AAP Task Force on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, 2005). Shortly after the issuance of the task force statement, the “Back to Sleep” campaign was launched in the United States in 1994. The goal of the campaign was to educate parents, caregivers, and health care providers about the ways to reduce the risk of SIDS. This campaign was successful in promoting infant back sleeping and other risk-reduction strategies as evidenced by a 50% reduction in SIDS rates (Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development, 2011).