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SIDS Awareness Month Toolkit 2021

A mother leaning over a bassinet while a father places a baby to sleep on their back in the bassinet. October is Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) Awareness Month!

This month and beyond, advocates and infant caregivers can join Safe to Sleep® and its partners to encourage safe infant sleep and help raise awareness about SIDS.

Although the rates of SIDS and other sleep-related infant deaths have decreased over the years, we still have work to do.

More than 1 out of 3 of sudden unexpected infant deaths that occur in the United States each year are from SIDS.1 Recent research also shows that unsafe bedding, such as soft or loose blankets in baby’s sleep area, remains a leading cause of infant death.2

How to Use This Toolkit

Use this toolkit to:

  • Share safe infant sleep images and messages using #SafeSleepSnap.
  • Normalize and spread awareness of safe sleep practices.
  • Celebrate caregivers’ roles in keeping baby safe during sleep.

Adjust this toolkit’s resources and messages to meet your organization’s tone, communication needs, and goals for SIDS Awareness Month while participating in #SafeSleepSnap.

For more information on the toolkit contents and how to use it, check out the presentation from our latest webinar, SIDS Awareness Month 2021 Webinar (PDF 4.8 MB).

This toolkit includes:

Refer to this digital toolkit as often as you need to before, during, and after SIDS Awareness Month. If you have questions that are not answered in this information, please contact nichdSafetoSleep@mail.nih.gov.

Learn more about the basics of safe infant sleep and SIDS.

Citations

  1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021). Sudden unexpected infant death and sudden infant death syndrome: Data and statistics. Retrieved June 1, 2021, from https://www.cdc.gov/sids/data.htm.
  2. Shapiro-Mendoza, C. K., Camperlengo, L., Ludvigsen, R., Cottengim, C., Anderson, R. N., Andrew, T., et al. (2014). Classification system for the sudden unexpected infant death case registry and its application. Pediatrics, 134(1), e210–e219. Retrieved May 3, 2021, from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24913798/.