Taffy Henderson, a maternal and child health promotion specialist with the Oklahoma City-County Health Department, puts a doll into a crib that is meant to show what a safe-sleeping environment looks like. Henderson uses the crib to demonstrate safe-sleeping practices in classes she teaches.
In October of last year, a 2-month-old infant from Kiowa County died after co-sleeping with her parents.
Her mother woke up to find her father’s arm partially obscuring her face, according to an autopsy report, which attributed her death to probable asphyxiation due to “overlay.”
children.
In May of last year, a 6-month-old Tulsa County infant died from suffocation after co-sleeping with an adult and a sibling on an adult bed. The baby was found unresponsive between the mattress and wall with his face in a pillow.
Three months earlier, a 5-month-old Oklahoma City infant was found dead in her crib with her 1-year-old sibling lying on top of her.
Despite more than two decades of national and state safe-sleep campaigns, unsafe sleeping practices are playing a significant role in dozens of infant deaths across Oklahoma each year.
An Oklahoma Watch review of autopsy reports from 2014 to 2016 found that 149 children under age 1, or around 50 a year, died in circumstances in which co-sleeping, sleeping in unsafe sleep environments, or both, were involved or suspected at the time of their deaths.
Oklahoma Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that produces in-depth and investigative journalism on a range of public-policy issues facing the state. For more Oklahoma Watch content, go to www.oklahomawatch.org.
