Prevent Child Abuse St. Joseph County, the nonprofit behind the annual roofsit fundraiser, has a new public service announcement campaign aimed at preventing infant sleeping deaths.
In each of the past three years in the county, three to five infants have died in their sleep. That’s down from 10 such deaths in 2022 but it’s a number that could spike again this year or next.
Through Facebook ads and three billboards in South Bend, Prevent Child Abuse St. Joseph County is stressing three things about how babies should sleep: On their backs, in a crib or bassinet, and without pillows or toys around them.
Sally Dixon is the maternal infant health coordinator with Beacon Health, which has its own awareness campaign aimed at bringing infant sleeping deaths down to zero by next year, called Babies Need to Breathe.
“Babies mostly breathe through their nose the first four to six months of life, so if you think about how small a little baby’s nose is, and then their airway that takes oxygen to their lungs, the opening is smaller than a straw," Dixon says. "And so that’s why placing them on their back, in their own crib, bassinet, no pillows, no blankets, it really protects their breathing.”
