Newborns will be able to sleep safely
-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert
Linking Families and Communities Executive Director Elizabeth Stanek, third from left, poses with UnityPoint Health -- Trinity Regional Medical Center Birth Center staff with the HALO SleepSack Swaddles the organization is donating to the hospital.
Ezra Peterson hit the sack – literally – for an afternoon nap recently.
That sack was a HALO SleepSack, a sort of sleeping bag with arm holes for babies. It keeps the little ones nice and warm as they sleep on their backs. Sleeping on their backs is the recommended position for babies because it greatly reduces any risk of suffocation from excess bedding.
Linking Families and Communities has donated about 1,600 of the SleepSacks to UnityPoint Health – Trinity Regional Medical Center in Fort Dodge and Stewart Memorial Community Hospital in Lake City. That supply is expected to last a couple of years, and during that time every baby born at the two hospitals will get one for free. Their parents will also get a card listing the various resources available to parents in the area.
Elizabeth Stanek, the executive director of Linking Families and Communities, told The Messenger that donating the SleepSacks was a good way to help new parents while at the same time making sure that their babies can sleep safely.