Safe to Sleep, formerly known as Back to Sleep, is a campaign backed by the United States National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, launched in 1994 following 1992 recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics, to reduce sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS, in babies up to one year old. The campaign's core message encourages parents to place infants on their backs to sleep rather than on their stomachs, since research shows this positioning significantly lowers SIDS risk, and it has since expanded beyond sleep positioning to address a full range of maternal, infant and environmental risk factors, promoting a firm sleeping surface, room-sharing without bed-sharing, pacifier use, breastfeeding, and avoiding soft objects in cribs. Since Safe to Sleep launched in 1994, the incidence of SIDS has declined by more than 50 percent, though the campaign notes that approximately 3,400 babies still die annually in the United States from SIDS and sleep-related suffocation.
Facts
Sponsoring BodyNational Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), U.S. National Institutes of Health 1 Target Population Health GoalReduce sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and sleep-related suffocation events 1 Geographic Scope Measured ResultsIncidence of SIDS has declined by more than 50% since launch in 1994 1 Program status (class) Classification
Program Kind Connections
Delivers Practice
Entity-backed identity for the program-kind enum value this public health program already carries, resolved to a health practice by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The program-kind fact itself stays on the program unchanged.
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Safe to Sleep, Wikipedia
History, sentence 2
NICHD launched the "Back to Sleep" campaign in 1994
Introduction, sentence 1
backed by the U.S. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) at the U.S. National Institutes of Health
Introduction, sentence 2
The target age group of the campaign is 0-1 years of age
Preventive measures, sentence 1
these preventive measures can be taken to decrease the rate of SIDS and sleep-related suffocation events
Wikidata claim P17 (country)
United States
Introduction, sentence 3
the incidence of SIDS has declined by more than 50%
- Wikipedia 'Safe to Sleep': present-tense description, 'the campaign has broadened its goal'; checked 2026-09-27.
Program classification, entity description sentence
The campaign's core message encourages parents to place infants on their backs to sleep rather than on their stomachs, since research shows this positioning significantly lowers SIDS risk, and it has since expanded beyond sleep positioning to address a full range of maternal, infant and environmental risk factors, promoting a firm sleeping surface, room-sharing without bed-sharing, pacifier use, breastfeeding, and avoiding soft objects in cribs.
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