SIDS Study: Iowa Hospitals Teaching New Parents Bad Behavior

A survey finds most Iowa hospitals are setting a bad example by placinginfants on their sides for sleep. Research published by the University ofIowa and the Iowa Department of Public Health finds babies that aren’t puton their backs run a greater risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome or SIDS.Dr. Stephanie Pettit (pet’-it) is executive director of the Iowa SIDSAlliance. About 90-percent of the 94 Iowa hospitals surveyed put infants ontheir sides in the newborn nurseries. Pettit says new parents who see thataction will likely repeat it and assume it’s okay. While many dimensions ofSIDS are still under investigation, Pettit says there were 48 deathsattributed to the syndrome statewide in 1999. Pettit says putting an infantdown on its side could be a fatal mistake. Putting a child on its stomachcarries an eight-to-nine times greater a risk for SIDS, while the sidecarries twice the risk as the back position. “Back is best,” she says. Theresearch is being published in the journal “Pediatrics.”