(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa SIDS Foundation is trying to raise awareness of proper sleeping environments for babies after a big increase in deaths. Foundation executive director Casey Manser says Sudden Infant Death Syndrome happens to babies who are under one year old.

“Since October 2023 we’ve been connected with 34 newly bereaved families who have experienced the loss of an infant who’s died suddenly and unexpectedly during sleep. And this does include families from 18 different counties across our state,” Manser says. That is a 70 percent increase in referrals to the Foundation for grief support for families.

“What we’ve seen is the majority of these infant deaths are related to accidents that occur in a sleeping environment. And so there are safe sleep recommendations, or recommendations of what you can do to keep babies safe during sleep,” Manser says. “And so a lot of these deaths are preventable and include accidents. And so what we kind of realize is maybe people don’t understand these recommendations completely. Maybe they’re not being talked about.” She says a lot of these deaths include infants who are sharing a sleep surface with an adult.

“Sleeping in the same bed as an adult, or sleeping on a couch or on a recliner with a caregiver, and so these surfaces are not safe for an infant when it comes to sleep,” she says. Manser says new parents can get a lot of suggestions about how to take care of their babies. “Everyone loves to give advice, right and tell you what works for them, and there’s lots of options where you can get information from the internet, social media, that kind of thing. What we want to encourage people to do is talk to their medical providers, and so these providers are going to have the most up to date information about what’s safe and what’s not,” Manser says.

She says parent should not overlook this information. “Even during pregnancy, before baby arrives, talk to their O-B or midwife about what their plan is for sleep, and so that they can answer questions before baby even gets here and have a safe plan. And then once baby arrives, we encourage parents and caregivers to ask their pediatricians or their medical providers,” she says.

Manser says their website, iowasids.org, also has information for parents as well.