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"Safe-sleep education, even before a baby is born, is crucial," said Angie Pendergrass, a registered nurse and patient care coordinator for Women's Health. She is a prenatal class educator at High Point Regional Health Systems.

The hospital is partnering with the North Carolina Healthy Start Foundation to give onesies, a one-piece baby garment, to every baby born at the hospital in October, National Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Awareness Month. The syndrome is also known as SIDS.

The onesies have pictures on the front depicting the correct way to put an infant to bed and also contain a bilingual fact sheet in English and Spanish. "The garment will be a reminder to parents to place babies on their back when putting them down for naps and bedtime," Pendergrass said.

The hospital anticipates 170 babies will be born there during October. That's a lot of onesies.

The single most important piece of advice, Pendergrass said, is " Put your own baby on his or her back to sleep for naps and at bedtime in his or her own crib, making sure the room is not too warm and the mattress is firm and that nothing else is in the bed but the baby!"

According to the North Carolina State Center for Health Statistics, SIDS is the leading cause of infant death in the state. In Guilford County, 98 babies died of SIDS in 2007. Other babies died from accidental suffocation and strangulation.

The N.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner emphasizes that many of these deaths were preventable and are related to excess bedding and parents sleeping with babies.

Pendergrass includes these other safe sleep habits for newborns: keep pillows, comforters and soft blankets, stuffed animals and toys out of the crib; do not let anyone smoke near your baby; breastfeed your baby; and keep baby and the room temperature comfortable -- at 68 to 75 degrees, not too hot.

Barb Carder, High Point Regional lactation consultant, said, "We include breastfeeding your baby as a safe sleep habit because the latest research indicates a link between the decreased rates of SIDS and breastfed babies. The theory is because breastfed babies sleep lighter and have more periods of rapid eye movement, or REM, sleep, which also promotes brain growth. Published data in the journal Pediatrics also note that the longer babies are breastfed, the lower the rates of SIDS."

The hospital has an ongoing program of classes and support groups for expectant and new parents. The classes are expectant parenting classes, expectant parent and family hospital tours, sibling class and tour, mommy and me, daddy and me, the Bradley Method prepared childbirth classes, infant CPR for parents, aquarobics for pregnant women, prenatal and postpartum exercises and infant massage.

For more information or to register for classes, call the High Point Regional Health System's contact center at 878-6888. Many of the classes are free.

If you have information about High Point people or events, please contact Kathy Johnson at mjohnson2@triad.rr.com.