Unsafe sleep: One baby's story

HASTINGS, Mich. (WOOD) - The young mother vaguely remembers the "safe sleep" video she watched at the hospital before going home with her baby girl Braydin.

"I got just the message that you don't lay them on their stomach, and you don't put a stuffed animal in, you don't sleep with them," the mom said.

It was another "how-to" in an overwhelming barrage of "how-tos" for a first-time teenaged mom.

"My eyes kind of glazed over," she said.

She doesn't remember anything about a couch in the video.

Then, last July, it was too hot to sleep upstairs at her parents' home. She slept on one couch; Braydin slept on a couch just a few feet away.

"She was laid down on the couch, during the night, and I was sleeping, and she just slipped underneath the couch arm," she said.

Braydin had somehow wiggled under a cushion and suffocated. The family called 911, performed CPR and got her heart beating again.

"I just remember holding her and just- I was just in shock," she said.

Then, after a day on life support, 7-month-old Braydin -- the happy little redhead  -- was gone.

Her mother asked 24 Hour News 8 not to identify her because of how people reacted.

"People said very nasty things, that I killed my daughter and stuff," she said.

Braydin was among more than 140 babies who died last year in Michigan because of what experts call unsafe sleep. About eight die each year in Kent County alone.

In the past, most of these deaths were labeled as SIDS, but medical examiners are now taking a closer look.

The state is now working to eliminate unsafe sleep deaths.

On Thursday, experts gave a crash course in safe sleep to Kent County's 100 or so child protective services caseworkers, who work on the front lines.

"We feel that if you continue to ring that bell and ring it loud and ring it long, that our community will begin to embrace the message," Bonita Agee, Education Coordinator for Strong Beginnings, told the caseworkers.

The campaign has included visits to baby stores, checking to see if they promote "unsafe sleep" -- such as displays that show cribs filled with blankets and pillows.

"Providing a safe sleep environment for our babies would make a great difference in our infant mortality rate," Sarah MacDonald, a register nurse at Spectrum Health System, told the caseworkers.

There is also talk of new statewide public service announcements like those in other states.

The main message: Babies should sleep alone, on their backs, in a crib or bassinet -- no blankets, no pillows, no stuffed animals. Just the baby.

"These are all preventable deaths," MacDonald told the caseworkers.

Back in Hastings, Braydin's mom has a tattoo to memorialize her baby -- angel wings and baby foot-prints with her baby's initials and: "In our arms for a moment, our hearts forever."

"It can just happen to anyone," the mom said. "It might not happen the first time you do it; it might not happen the second time, but it can happen. You should just never lay your child anywhere but in a crib, or somewhere safe."

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Tips for safe sleep from experts:

• The baby should sleep on his or her back, not stomach.
• The baby should only sleep in in a crib, portable crib or basinette.
• Use a firm mattress with a tight-fitting sheet.
• There should be no other bedding, no pillows and no stuffed animals in the crib.
• Dress the baby in a sleeper rather than using a blanket.

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Online:

Michigan Department of Human Services on safe sleep