Quick watch: Advocating and community involvement to decrease SUID

David Turkewitz, MD, medical director of Newborn Nurseries at Allegheny Health Network in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, joined Contemporary Pediatrics to advocate for community involvement for pediatricians regarding sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and sudden unexpected infant death (SUID) awareness.

He underscored the importance of advocacy for awareness SUID, and encourages providers to get involved in their communities to further decrease the risk of SUID.

In a previous discussion, Turkewitz emphasized the critical role of pediatricians in educating families about strategies to prevent SIDS and SUID, and highlighted key aspects from the 2022 guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Click here to watch this video interview.

David Turkewitz, MD:

Just bringing up safe sleep in the newborn nursery and these strategies, and bringing it up in the office isn't enough.When we started in 1970s to 1980s, 1 in 250 babies, that's an extraordinary number in otherwise well developed, rich countries, were dying sleep-related deaths. Now, because of all the things that I've discussed, the rate is about 1 in 2500.You can say, "Boy, that's terrific, that's tremendous, that's a 10-fold risk reduction," but tell that to any parent whose baby dies an unexpected deaths. One death is too much, and we know that it's really not enough for us to give this message in the newborn nursery. It's not enough, while it's important that the pediatrician mention this at every visit in the first year of life, pediatricians should be involved with community organizations that further promote, because we know the more ways this message get can get out, we know that it's more likely that we're going to be able to overcome some of these social determinants and several factors [and] barriers that currently exist out there in terms of promoting these safe seek strategies.