Sources of attitudes towards parent-child co-sleeping and their effects: A systematic scoping review

Parent-child co-sleeping is a common practice in many cultures, although in Western countries, families who engage in parent-child co-sleeping can encounter attitudes about co-sleeping that feel critical from the people around them, as it is not commonly accepted and often stigmatized. This systematic scoping review examined and synthesized the available literature on the attitudes about parent-child co-sleeping that people encounter, their origins, and their effect on parents' own attitudes and behaviors. A total of 9796 abstracts were screened, and 33 studies were included. While the scope of the literature on this topic was narrow, this review demonstrated that parents/caregivers mostly encounter encouraging attitudes about co-sleeping from their extended family members and within their culture and discouraging attitudes from healthcare professionals. Findings suggest that encouraging attitudes enhance the likelihood of parents engaging and continuing with co-sleeping behavior, while discouraging attitudes can lead to the avoidance of parents discussing sleep with their healthcare professionals and can cause conflicts with other family members, including partners. Based on these findings, we conclude that further research is needed in several areas related to co-sleeping in Western culture, most specifically in how external attitudes influence the decision to co-sleep, as well as other behaviors and cognitions such as engagement with healthcare professionals, family satisfaction, parental self-efficacy, and overall mental health.

Basic Life Support Guidance for Caregivers of NICU Graduates: Evaluation of Skill Transfer after Training

Background Intensivists indeed discharge neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) graduates after a period of physiological stability. There is, however, a real risk of life-threatening events at home. Survival after such episodes depends on time from arrest to initiation of basic life support (BLS). It is rational to train parents who would be first responders. We sought to measure objectively and prospectively, effect of BLS training on parents of NICU graduates on the psychomotor, cognitive, and affective domains of human learning.

Methods After face-to-face training sessions, proportion of home caregivers who obtained 100% marks on a pretested performance checklist for psychomotor skills of BLS on a mannequin were measured. Two other domains of learning and number of attempts required to obtain desirable results were also analyzed.

Results Median (interquartile range [IQR]) birth weight of the high-risk neonates was 1,050 g (930, 1570) and median gestational age was 29 (IQR 28, 33) weeks. More than 75% of parents had no prior exposure to BLS training. Among 46 trained caregivers, 80.4% achieved the desired score of 5 in the psychomotor performance checklist on the first attempt. A maximum of two attempts was required to reeducate and achieve score of 5 in the remaining caregivers. Forty-two (91.3%) caregivers obtained full marks on cognitive domain test. All caregivers responded positively toward affective domain questionnaire.

Conclusion It is possible to train parents in BLS measures and demonstrate their psychomotor skills on a mannequin effectively. No parents who were approached refused training or indicated anxiety in learning the skills required.

Neither here nor there and a little bit of both: The ambiguous loss experience of parents who lost a baby to sudden infant death syndrome

Losing a baby to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) triggers a severe loss reaction. The severity of the loss may be attributed to the baby's age, the lack of satisfactory explanation for the death, and a lack of social recognition. The current study aimed to examine the loss experience of Israeli parents (N = 12) who lost a baby to SIDS through the theoretical lens of ambiguous loss. A deductive and inductive thematic analysis revealed that, for these bereaved parents, entities of the baby-physical and psychological-are unclear. Thus, the parents' loss is likewise unclear and ambiguous.

Considerations in Safe to Sleep® messaging: Learning from African-American mothers

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study was to identify why African-American mothers do not tend to follow the Safe to Sleep® recommendations and to begin to identify a way to frame the Safe to Sleep® message so that African-American mothers might be more likely to follow these recommendations.

DESIGN

We recruited African-American mothers with infants over the age of 6 months to participate in two focus groups facilitated by a community engagement manager experienced in focus group facilitation. We used ethnography to find shared patterns of behavior and beliefs in African-American women related to safe sleep.

RESULTS

We identified 14 concepts and formulated them into three categories: it's just easier; can't fight culture and grandma; and Effectively teaching mother. From these we were able to identify the shared value of multifaceted learning.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

African-American mothers say that they are generally aware of the Safe to Sleep® recommendations, even though the majority of mothers do not follow them. The reasons they give for not following them are that they are not comfortable doing so, they feel they are unable to do so, or find it unnecessary. Many of the mothers attempted to follow the Safe to Sleep® recommendations but abandoned the effort due to the stress of their crying infant. Trying to follow the Safe to Sleep® recommendations were stressful for the mothers, even though there was concern expressed by some that their infant could indeed suffocate or die from sudden infant death syndrome. The mothers gave suggestions on how they would change the message or the delivery of the message.

Illustrations of Unexpected Infant Sleep Deaths

Case illustrations from central Indiana provide the narrative for infant suffocations because of unsafe sleep environments. Accidental strangulation or suffocation in bed is caused by co-bedding, blankets and pillows in cribs, or wedging and entrapment. Knowledge of the evidence-based risks associated with case data may assist further in the prevention of unexpected infant sleep deaths and may better inform best practice for death scene investigation including forensic nurses.