Promotion of an active Speakers' Bureau to enhance community awareness about SIDS, the grief process and available resources. Maintenance of loan libraries, including printed and audio-visual materials, in both Foundation offices. Also, placement of 12 additional collections in medical libraries across the state in association with the Joseph Mickey Krinbring Memorial Guild. A new coalition, spearheaded by the SIDS Foundation of Washington, aims to change that. The coalition, which currently numbers 59 public and private agencies, is called Communities for Infant Sleep Position.
Many people are resistant to making the change.
They still believe that babies placed on their backs might choke if they spit up, but research indicates infants automatically turn their heads. Some, particularly premature newborns, may have special medical indications that would make the side position safer at first. But the doctor or nurse practitioner should explain why back-sleeping is not recommended right now and when it is safe to make the switch. Mona Lee Locke Mona Lee Locke, wife of Washington state Governor Gary Locke and a mother herself, is the spokesperson for the coalition. She and daughter Emily starred in TV and radio messages which ran during October 1997 SIDS Awareness Month and aired frequently throughout the year.