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SAFE Baby Program
SAFE = Safety Awareness for Families and Every Baby
The SAFE Baby Program focuses on empowering caregivers with essential knowledge and skills for infant safety by filling gaps and supplementing existing programs. Our goal is to reduce infant mortality rates, prevent accidents, and foster a supportive community environment for caregivers.
Background
According to the City of Milwaukee Health Department, over 15% of Milwaukee’s infant deaths are attributable to a combination of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and Sudden Unexpected Death in Infancy (SUDI) and unsafe sleep. Of these deaths, the majority died in an unsafe sleep environment. According to the CDC, Abusive Head Trauma (AHT)/ Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) is a leading cause of physical child abuse deaths in children under 5 in the United States. This program was developed to address the gaps and supplement programs already in place.
Program Overview
The purpose of the Safe Baby program is to provide culturally sensitive and harm-reduction focused education and training to promote safe sleep and care practices for infants. Focusing on communities with identifiable risk factors by promoting awareness and empowering caregivers to reduce the risk of sudden unexpected infant deaths (SUIDS) and abuse. This will be accomplished by collaborating with community-based doulas, providing resources, education, and interactive activities on topics such as sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), Period of PURPLE Crying, stress, anxiety, depression and parenting, abuse head trauma (AHT)/shaken baby syndrome (SBS), and infant CPR.
Program Mission
To ensure the safety and well-being of every baby in our community by equipping families with essential knowledge, tools, and resources to practice safe caregiving.
Core Principles:
- Safety: Empowering caregivers with actionable steps to create safe environments for infants.
- Awareness: Raising awareness about the risks and prevention of sleep-related infant deaths and other safety concerns.
- Families: Supporting families with tailored guidance, workshops, and resources.
- Every Baby: Ensuring no baby is left behind by promoting inclusivity and accessibility in all program activities.
How Our Program Works
Based on risk factors, participants get referred to our program. If participants are working with community-based doulas, we work with the doulas to provide support, resources, and monitoring based on needs.
Parents and caregivers will attend our SAFE Baby workshop to receive education and skills for empower them to create an environment of safety for our community's infants.
If there is a community-based doula working with the family, we will check in with the doulas on progress and needs. Once the doula service has ended, the SAFE Baby program will follow the family until baby is 6 months of age.