The Geary Community Hospital Auxiliary has donated $800 toward the Safe Sleep Take Home Program initiated by Delivering Change: Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies and the Martha K. Hoover Women’s Center.

The safe sleep sack is a wearable blanket for newborn babies replacing blankets that can cover a baby’s face and interfere with breathing when swaddled.

Currently, the safe sleep sack is used with every newborn at the Martha K. Hoover Women’s Center, but with recent funding, every new mother will now receive a safe sleep sack to take home as their departing gift. New mothers will also receive educational materials on sleep safety.

Jill Nelson, Program Coordinator of Delivering Change stated “We’re really excited to expand our in-hospital program. We’ve been demonstrating the steps of safe sleep but now we are actually giving the parents the tools to go home and utilize them. These sleep sacks have been increasingly popular in hospitals and most have made the transition toward using them as well.”

The safe sleep sack can transition and grow with the baby until 24 months.