CINCINNATI — Infant mortality rates reached a record low in Hamilton County in 2020, according to Cradle Cincinnati, and now Hamilton County Job and Family Services is launching a new campaign to help reduce those rates even further.
The new campaign is called the Safe Sleep Tour, and it takes an empathetic approach to teaching safe sleep habits to parents across the county.
Grace Muntz, the section chief in Children Services with Hamilton County JFS, said people raise their kids the way they were raised, but research into raising children has advanced further than where it was.
"We recognize that," Muntz said. "We definitely don't want this to be a message or an effort to be construed as blaming parents."
Hamilton County JFS workers will also hand out and teach people how to use Halo swaddles and sleep sacks as part of the campaign. Proper sleeping clothes helps make sure babies and infants stay warm without putting them at risk of suffocating.
"The agency wants to provide these items now as part of its effort to be more preventative in serving families and to increase our visibility in the community," said Amy Story, assistant director for strategic operations with Hamilton County JFS. "We don’t want to wait for a need or a scare."
