Survey of sleeping position recommendations for prematurely born infants on neonatal intensive care unit discharge

Abstract

Recommendations regarding sleeping position for prematurely born infants after neonatal discharge by some practitioners remain inappropriate. Evidence-based guidelines are required as these would hopefully inform all neonatal units' recommendations.

Sudden infant death syndrome: another year of new hope but no cure

“…In a study conducted in the UK [35] the staff in the majority of neonatal intensive care units modeled supine sleep for parents during the last 1-2 weeks before discharge, but only 38% expressly discouraged prone sleep and 17% still recommended side sleeping. This study demonstrates a need for standardized, evidence-based guidelines about sleep practices to promote more uniform and appropriate discharge guidance for parents of preterm infants.…”

Pulse Oximetry Monitoring of Infants Who Require Prone Position For Sleep – Is There Evidence That This Practice Reduces SIDS?

“…Studies show that parent practices at home are strongly influenced by hospital nursery practices when it comes to the topic of SIDS. 27,36,37 Therefore, altering an infant's sleep regimen by removing one component from it, pulse oximetry monitoring, may be unsettling to parents and cause unnecessary anxiety. Since medical protocols should be based in evidence, and there is no evidence behind this protocol, there should be no need to monitor these otherwise healthy infants.…”

Survey of sleeping position recommendations for prematurely born infants

“…In addition, practitioners were asked regarding what recommendations they made regarding sleeping position following discharge, whether written guidelines were available for staff and if written advice was available for parents. The results were compared to those from the survey reported in 2006 [9].…”

“…Non-responders were resent the questionnaire by e-mail 6 weeks later. The questions asked were those used in our previous survey [9]. Questions were asked regarding sleeping position recommendations prior to and after discharge, particularly focusing on when it was recommended that prematurely born babies should commence supine sleeping (practitioners were given the following choices: 1-2 weeks before discharge, 1-2 days before discharge, at discharge, other please specify).…”

“…The risk of SIDS is increased in prematurely born infants compared to those born at term [7,12], particularly if they are either slept prone or on their side [4,8]. It is therefore of concern that our survey of UK neonatal units undertaken in 2006 highlighted that following neonatal unit discharge, 17% of units recommended side sleeping and only 38% actively discouraged prone sleeping [9]. "Reduce the risk of cot death" campaign run by the Department of Health and the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths (FSID) [10] was not specifically targeted at prematurely born infants.…”