This month the Safe Kids Georgia team collaborated with our lead agency, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta’s Injury Prevention Program (CHIPP) to host the first Baby Safety Shower. Also in partnership with the Grady Women’s Center, the purpose of the shower was to educate mothers on safe care of their newborns and to provide some select home safety items as gifts for their baby.
Approximately 10 expectant moms and their guests were treated to refreshments, cake, safety education, giveaways, literature and a brief presentation on the following topics:
Home Safety: Safe kids Fulton coordinators, Angela Johnson and Gail Robinson and Safe Kids Georgia’s Program Coordinator Mahwish Javed, provided home safety kits with home safety equipment: cabinet locks, outlet covers etc , halo sleep sacks, and child safety brochures/tip sheets.
Car seat safety: Meagan Gibson from the Georgia Department of Public Health, a certified child passenger safety technician, instructed the expectant moms on how to keep babies safe in the car with tips such as: babies should be rear-facing until a minimum of age 2; keep straps tight; use the chest clip, and no bulky clothes or blankets.
Safe Sleep: Dr. Maneesha Agarwal (Pediatric ED) covered the Safe Sleep as well as SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). She emphasized that babies sleep safest alone, on their back in a crib. She stressed the importance of dressing the baby not the baby’s bed – no crib bumpers, no blankets, no stuffed animals, etc. Babies should sleep in a sleep sack with a onesie underneath if needed.
The shower included interactive, 15 minute stations covering topics of safe sleep, breast feeding, swaddling, infant emergencies, myth busting and child passenger safety. Two prizes were raffled to the Grady prenatal program moms, which included a car seat with car seat fitting from Safe Kids Fulton County and a pack and play from Graco.
The shower was organized and directed by Dr. Melissa Adams (Pediatric Primary care) and Dr. Sarah Lazarus (Pediatric ED). Special thanks to the Emory Rollins School of Public Health students for designing the curriculum for the shower.
All partners considered this first Baby Safety Shower a huge success and participating mothers expressed enjoyment and knowledge gained from attending the shower safety stations! CHIPP plans on hosting these showers multiple times a year at the Grady Women’s Center.
Childhood injury remains the number one cause of death for children ages birth to 19 years of age in the US.
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