Sids Case

Today while I was in the nursery, I was allowed to see a lot of things. One of these things was parent teaching on the prevention of sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS. SIDS is the sudden death of an infant that is younger than 1 year. The death is not able to be explained. There seems to be no rhyme or reason for the death. Over time there have been certain things correlated with increased chances of SIDS. The nursery nurses educate the patients while in the hospital on these risk factors.

The most important thing the nurses stressed was the "Back to Sleep" campaign. This was put in place by the AAP. Laying the infant in the supine position decreases their risk factor for dying from SIDS. This is because in the prone position, the infant is more at risk for rebreathing. Sleep in the prone position is also a deeper sleep than is sleep in the supine position. (Esponsito, Hegyi, & Ostfeld, 2007) According to Esponsito, Hegyi, and Ostfeld, "Overall, infants are more likely to be placed to sleep in the supine position if this recommendation has been provided by a healthcare professional" (p. 159). This puts a lot of responsibility on the nurses to make sure that the parents understand the importance of placing the infant on their back to sleep.

There are other things that the nurses stressed to the parents. They stressed the importance of putting the infant to bed with a firm mattress with no blankets, pillows, toys, or bumper pads. It is important for the infant to sleep in their own crib, never in the parent's bed. The nurse also stressed the importance of keeping the baby away from secondhand smoke. This increases the risk of SIDS as well. Another thing that was stressed to the parents was the benefits of pacifiers. This also reduces the risk of SIDS. The article did not discuss any of these specifically. I think that patient education is really important. It is important for the nurses to be knowledgeable about these things as well as the reasoning for them.

References

Esponsito, L., Hegyi, T., & Ostfeld, B. (2007). Educating Parents About the Risk Factors of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome: The Role of Neonatal Intensive Cae Unit and Well Baby Nursery Nurses. J Perinat Neonat Nurs , 21 (2), 158-164.