Outreach

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The NICHD has been the lead agency for research on SIDS since the SIDS Act was passed in 1974. SIDS is a syndrome of unknown cause and is defined as the sudden death of an infant under one year of age, which remains unexplained even after a thorough case investigation, autopsy and review of the clinical history. SIDS is the leading cause of post neonatal mortality in the U.S. According the National Center for Health Statistics, the 2004 SIDS rate is 0.55/1,000 live births. The national Back to Sleep public health education campaign was launched in 1994 after the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommended back sleeping as the safest sleep position for infants under 1 year of age. Stomach sleeping is a major risk factor for SIDS. The campaign promotes placing babies on their backs to sleep to reduce the risk of SIDS. It is led by the NIH in collaboration with the following campaign sponsors: AAP, Maternal and Child Health Bureau of HRSA, First Candle/SIDS Alliance, and the Association of SIDS and Infant Mortality Programs. Since the launch of the campaign, the SIDS rate has dropped by 50 percentamong all racial groups. However, despite the overall success of the campaign, African American infants are placed to sleep on their stomachs more often than white infants. The SIDS rate for African American infants is two times greater than that of white infants. To strategically address this disparity, the NICHD formed a strategic alliance with three national women's leadership organizations -- The Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, The National Coalition of 100 Black Women, and the Women of the NAACP. This alliance, called the Journey to Save Our Children focuses on reducing the risk of SIDS in African American infants.