Abstract
Background: Research has revealed many sleep environments for infants that carry an increased risk of infant injury and mortality. Sudden, unexpected infant deaths and sudden neonatal collapses have been associated with infant car seats, slings, baby hammocks, while breastfeeding, during mobile phone use, in cots, on sofas, in shared sleeping situations, and in delivery suite during kangaroo-care. No environment is risk free for a baby. Babies are obligatory nose breathers and any position which occludes a baby's nose or promotes chin-to-chest positioning may cause positional asphyxia and slow suffocation. Babies who have impaired arousal mechanisms through exposure to tobacco smoke, alcohol, illicit or prescription drugs, or those who are born premature or of low birth weight, are particularly vulnerable. Health professionals are bombarded with many guidelines that they are expected to impart as part of parent education. This workshop will present a novel approach using the baby's perspective and share a simple set of principles applicable to all environments for a baby placed to sleep. Using different kinds of evidence: Scientific evidence comes from group data. While it is an important part of the communication and prevention story, it is by no means all of it. It lacks the specificity that other types of information can add. Jeanine will lead a discussion about current communication challenges that participants' experience in their prevention work. This will be followed by a short presentation of the different kinds of evidence needed for effective translation of science into understanding and action, using coroners' reports and case reviews, as examples. This will be followed by the opportunity to review coroners' reports for communication clues that can enhance programme development and the translation of evidence. Using translation tools: Effective translation requires that we know the language we are translating from and the language into which we are translating. Stephanie will present briefly on the four domains of learning (cognitive, emotional, spiritual and physical) and the power of analogies in designing effective communication experiences for rippling into communities. Participants will practise using a simple plastic tube to simulate an infant's airway, and use it to explain how babies can suffocate and how safe sleep recommendations can protect them. Putting these together in a real communication situation: The session will end with a short demonstration of the standard safety briefing that goes with the issue of portable sleep spaces to vulnerable infants in some regions of New Zealand and Australia. It combines the art of translation with the science of prevention to enable understanding of infant vulnerability to accidental suffocation, and practical ways to set a baby up to be 'safe to breathe' when sleeping, wherever that may be.