More than 800 U.S. hospitals promote the use of pouches -- rather than receiving blankets -- to swaddle newborns, sometimes presenting them to new parents instead of the traditional formula-filled diaper bag at discharge, Time.com reports.
The pouches, called SleepSacks, were developed 10 years ago by the father of a child who died of SIDS before the "Back to Sleep" campaign was launched in the United States.
Some hospitals have begun to add their logos to the pouches.
Time's parenting writer Bonnie Rochman reports that hospitals gift the pouches and/or use them to demonstrate safe sleep techniques to new parents. “We can’t tell parents not to use blankets when all they see us do in hospitals is use blankets,” says Bill Schmid, a mechanical engineer whose 8-week-old daughter died in 1991.
Read more at Time.com, including a story on recent SIDS statistics and prevention efforts.