October 2023 Update

Two years ago, Nurture KC embarked on our Nurturing Safe Sleep initiative to reduce infant deaths from unsafe sleep, a leading driver of infant mortality in Kansas City, particularly for Black babies. Educating parents on the importance of safe sleep has long been a benchmark in our Healthy Start program and the compliance rates among Healthy Start families when it comes to safe sleep are extremely high. Even so, we wanted broader impact across the Kansas City metro for those families who don’t receive Healthy Start services.

Our Community Action Team (CAT), prioritized helping area hospitals secure safe sleep certification as a strategy that could positively impact the culture and practice of safe sleep. Hospitals are health leaders and if they could be encouraged to emphasize safe sleep through the adoption of policies and implementation of staff and family education it would be an impactful first step in establishing a safe sleep norm. Fast forward to October 2023 and Nurture KC has assisted five area hospitals in securing safe sleep certification with two more to follow this fall. When the Nurturing Safe Sleep initiative began, only two metro hospitals had achieved certification. In addition, Nurture KC’s Fetal Infant Mortality Review Coordinator, Katherine Campbell, was a contributing author to the Missouri Hospital Association’s safe sleep guide, designed to be a model for implementing safe sleep in hospitals across Missouri. While hospitals have been our first partners in safe sleep, the next phase will include other health and service providers ranging from doctor’s offices to child care providers.

Only Children’s Mercy Hospital and University Health Hospital Hill had safe sleep certification before our initiative. Now, the following hospitals have achieved certification, with University Health Hospital Hill getting re-certified:

• Providence Medical Center
• Liberty Hospital
• University Health System – Hospital Hill and Lakewood
• North Kansas City Hospital

This type of community coordination is key to Nurture KC’s mission and we are thrilled to celebrate these hospitals during safe sleep awareness month!

Tracy Russell

Executive Director, Nurture KC

Share Our Nurturing Safe Sleep Champions

Want to share with others our safe sleep progress and the difference it's making for Kansas City families?

Check out nurturekc.org/solutions/safe-sleep#champions - a new section on our web site.

Hospitals earn our Nurturing Safe Sleep Champion designation for:

1)     Adopting a safe sleep policy

2)     Training staff on safe sleep procedures

3)     Providing education to new parents

We are proud of these hospitals for earning this honor and grateful for the education they are passing along to so many local families.

2023 Flu Vaccine Clinic Schedule

The vaccine clicks are open to anyone. The public can walk into any clinic or schedule an appointment in Kansas or Missouri in advance. This clinic schedule is also available at on our Immunization page at nurturekc.org/solutions/immunization if you would like to share it.

New Data: Local Infant Mortality Rates

Sadly, infant deaths in Kansas City, MO are well above the national average and Black babies are more than twice as likely to pass away, according to the KC MO Health Department. Here is the data:

Black Infant Mortality Rate - 11.4 out of 1,000 live births

Latino Infant Mortality Rate - 6.25 out of 1,000 live births

White Infant Mortality Rate - 4.13 out of 1,000 live births

(Note: All mortality rates have increased since last year's report.)

The National Infant Mortality Rate is 5.4 out of 1,000 live birth per the CDC.

Nurture KC educates families on safe sleep practices for babies to save lives and our KC FIMR group helps families who have experienced unimaginable loss. Learn more at https://nurturekc.org/issues/infant-mortality/.

Membership News

Thank you to Heather Braum and Christina Wahl for renewing your

membership this past month

New organizational membership:

Saint Luke's Health System, Benefactor Level