Teenage mothers in Pulaski, Jefferson and Lonoke counties can receive training on creating a safe sleep environment for their babies thanks to a $2.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
The goal of the five-year grant is to reduce Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and other causes of sleep-related deaths among infants of teen mothers, identified as a high-risk population. It will allow the research team at Arkansas Children's Hospital Research Institute and the ACH Injury Prevention Center to offer training on the sleep practices recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics, including placing babies on their backs and creating a safe sleep environment.
"Infants of teen mothers, especially those in rural, poor, Southern states, are particularly at risk, due, in part, to low compliance with safe sleep recommendations," said grant recipient Dr. Mary Aitken, director of the Arkansas Children's Hospital Injury Prevention Center, professor of pediatrics and chief of the Center for Applied Research and Evaluation at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
State Desk on 10/12/2014