Southeast Missouri hospitals provide parents with boxinettes

The infant mortality rate in Scott, Mississippi, New Madrid, Stoddard, Dunklin and Pemiscot counties are the highest in Missouri and even surpasses the national rate. Many of these deaths result from parents accidentally suffocating their children by rolling on top of them while sleeping in the same bed. Healthcare facilities are now equipping families with "boxinettes" to eliminate this tragedy.

Everyone is familiar with bassinets, but some families not only lack the space for cribs, but do not have the space for bassinets, either. Therefore, they put their baby in bed with them, and too often the unthinkable occurs. The boxinette provides a safe place for infants to sleep, according to Karlyle Christian-Ritter, chief of neonatology at Saint Francis Medical Center.

Saint Francis Medical Center, Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston and Twin Rivers Medical Center in Kennett received a grant for $200,000 from the Missouri Health Foundation and are giving out 750 of these 3-foot-by-1-foot, 2-pound boxinettes made of sturdy cardboard with a mattress on the bottom. We support this effort, as it is both life-saving and simple. They also travel easily, so if a family on vacation stays in a hotel or visits friends overnight, no problem: the boxinette is good to go.

Boxinettes have experienced success overseas. As Ben Kleine reported in a Jan. 19 Southeast Missourian article, Finland has used boxinettes since 1938 and they have been credited with dropping infant mortality from "65 deaths to 2 deaths per 1,000 births, which is the best infant mortality rate in the world, according to foreign news stories." That's an improvement that demands close examination, considering that, according to Missouri HHS, "24 percent of infant deaths were sleep-related by one of the sleeping parents rolling over onto their baby and suffocating it." Furthermore, "another 12 percent of deaths were deemed to be possibly sleep-related."

Teiffney Tyler, Missouri Delta maternal child director, said new parents are all-in for the boxes provided by the hospitals. The hospitals also give parents instructions on correct sleeping methods for infants and require the parents to fill out surveys indicating if they have used the boxinettes.

Nothing is more precious than a baby. Therefore, nothing is more important than protecting every single one, and this seems to be both a simple and effective way to do that.