Introduction
In 1992, the American Academy of Pediatrics embarked on a
large uncontrolled and, as it turned out, highly successful intervention
to prevent SIDS. The Task Force on Infant Positioning
and SIDS recommended that “healthy infants, when being put
down to sleep, be positioned on their side or back” (American
Academy of Pediatrics, 1992). The incidence of SIDS in the
United States was 1.2 deaths per thousand live births in 1992,
and in the years immediately following the “Back to Sleep”
campaign, the incidence of SIDS fell each year. In the last available
compilation of mortality statistics in 2004, the incidence
of SIDS in the U.S. was 0.51 deaths per thousand live births
(Mini˜no et al., 2006). The rate of decline in SIDS incidence
seems to have slowed recently and may actually be stable. Recent
estimates indicate that ∼85% of infants are put to sleep in the
supine or lateral position (NISP, 2006); only 28% of infants were
put to sleep in the supine or lateral position in 1992. Efforts
to increase the number of infants sleeping supine, enhance the
safety of the sleeping environment and reduce maternal risk factors
may reduce the incidence of SIDS further (Task Force on