Franciscan St. James is first Illinois Birthing Hospital to earn Gold - Safe Sleep Champion status from Cribs for Kids

Franciscan St. James Health in partnership with Sudden Infant Death Services (SIDS) of Illinois to be certified by Cribs or Kids as a Gold – Safe Sleep Champion.

Franciscan St. James is the first birthing hospital in the entire state of Illinois to earn Gold – Safe Sleep Champion status.

To earn Gold – Safe Sleep Champion Status, Franciscan St. James was required to meet rigorous standards established by Cribs for Kids, including developing and maintaining as safe sleep policy, provide infant safe sleep training to staff, provide safe sleep education to parents at discharge and more.

In 2010, then Governor Quinn, signed House Bill 5930 into law, requiring all Illinois birthing hospitals to provide written and verbal safe sleep education and SIDS risk reduction information to all parents of newborns prior to discharge from the hospital.

The staff of the Lullaby Birthplace, which is located on the Franciscan St. James Chicago Heights campus, has been hard at work educating all their new families.

In April of this year, Teresa Berki, R.N., IBCLC, CCE, contacted Nancy Maruyama, Executive Director, SIDS of Illinois, Inc., and requested technical assistance to secure the Cribs for Kids® Gold - Safe Sleep Champion certification.

“Terry has been working tirelessly to obtain this certification. As a Cribs for Kids Partner, SIDS of Illinois, Inc. was very happy to work with Franciscan St. James and provide the needed resources to make this certification a reality,” said Nancy Maruyama, RN, BSN, Executive Director, SIDS of IL, Inc. “Terry and the entire staff are clearly committed to the work of educating parents on infant Safe Sleep techniques and decreasing overall infant mortality in the community.”

In addition to the Gold – Safe Sleep Champion certification, the hospital continues to explore additional methods of reducing infant deaths by exploring non-traditional approaches to education.