By Kevin Czerwinski, Office of New York State Assemblywoman Amy Paulin

Jul. 27, 2016:  Babies die from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome ("SIDS") and accidents during sleep each year in New York. 

To help address this problem, legislation authored by New York State Assemblywoman Amy Paulin (D-88) to increase public awareness and educate maternity patients about safe sleep practices regarding babies and infants was signed into law by Governor Andrew Cuomo on Thursday, July 21.

Paulin's legislation amends the public health law to require that the informational leaflets provided by hospitals and birth centers to maternity patients include information relating to safe sleep.  

The impetus for the legislation came from the New York State Office of Children and Family Services ("OCFS"), which noticed an increase in the number of fatalities of children, mainly infants, while they are sleeping reported to the Statewide Central Register. 

"While the State Department of Health [DOH] and OCFS have worked cooperatively on developing brochures and other public information materials on safe sleep, we needed to increase our efforts to prevent infant deaths due to unsafe sleeping practices, including through direct outreach to birth parents," Paulin said. 

Hospitals and birth centers are already required to provide information to maternity patients regarding shaken baby syndrome and maternal depression and statistics on maternity-related procedures such as caesarean sections performed at hospitals and birth centers. This legislation simply adds to that information and may take the form of a video.   

"By adding to and improving the current information that is available to new mothers, we will build awareness of the risks associated with unsafe sleeping conditions and help parents provide safe sleeping environments for infants so that we can prevent tragic infant deaths and injuries," Paulin said.

The bill was sponsored in the Senate by Andrew Lanza.  

Photo courtesy Office of New York State Assemblywoman Amy Paulin