St. Louis nurses fight SIDS with special pajamas

By Kay Quinn, Healthbeat Reporter

KSDK -- Being born too early is the number one cause of death in infants in this country.

Premature babies also face a higher risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) once they go home from the hospital. Now, some nurses are trying to lower that risk the old-fashioned way.

Visit a neo-natal intensive care unit and you'll be overwhelmed by the sights and the sounds of cutting edge medicine saving the smallest of babies. All that technology makes the simple idea of sending parents of preemies home with special pajamas so ingenious.

The neo-natal intensive care unit (NICU) at St. Louis Children's Hospital is a world of its own. Machines beep, lights flash, words you don't understand are overheard, and occasionally, very sick babies cry.

"It is overwhelming some days," says Ashley Vanausdoll, the mother of Jerra, a newborn being treated in Children's Hospital's NICU.

Ashley and her husband Chris worry about what's caused Jerra's seizures. They also worry about how to best care for her at home.

"Dad's more worried about it than I think I am," says Ashley.

Worries that are shared by the nurses who lovingly get babies strong enough to go home.

And that's why it was a nurse who led an effort to send every preemie here home with a Halo SleepSack Swaddle, a wearable blanket, designed to reduce the risk of SIDS.

"I had one dad say, 'you know, can I hug you?' They were very, very excited about getting them," says Jeanne Giebe, St. Louis Children's Hospital nurse practitioner who started the program.

Giebe says the swaddles are perfect for newborns, especially preemies, because blankets or covers in a crib can raise the risk of SIDS.

And the swaddle forces caregivers, especially grandparents, to put babies to sleep on their backs. Stomach sleeping is a known SIDS risk factor.

The hospital is so convinced this old-fashioned idea of using swaddles will save lives that it's sending every baby who leaves this NICU home with two of them.

"This intervention has an enormous impact on improving the safety of all of our babies," says Dr. Sessions Cole, a St. Louis Children's Hospital neonatologist.

There are other hospitals across the country doing similar sleep sack programs but what's unique about what's happening here at Children's Hospital is that this is being used in the NICU.

Parents of preemies like the added peace of mind.

"Knowing she's swaddled in tight, she's warm; her body temp is going to stay regulated and everything," says Ashley.

On top of all the health hurdles they face, preemies also face about a 10 percent higher risk for SIDS than a full-term newborn.

Look for a link on this page that will take you to more information about SIDS and to the web site of the Halo SleepSack Swaddles.