Vincennes hospital's 'Baby Safety Shower' to serve as state model

The Southwestern Region, which includes Knox County, had a higher rate of 7.5.

Earlier this year, Good Samaritan's trauma department applied for a grant for certified trauma centers from the Indiana State Department of Health to fund a new program focusing on bringing those mortality rates down, primarily through infant safety.

By April, the hospital had learned that it would be awarded the $25,000 grant — and that it would also serve as the state's template for the “Baby Safety Shower” program, off of which other counties and hospitals can model their own programs.

The “Baby Safety Shower,” trauma coordinator Jamie Dugan explained, addresses all the possible scenarios that might bring an infant into a hospital emergency room through an interactive, expo-type event, complete with informational booths, hands-on demonstrations and prize giveaways.

“We try to look at every single possible injury that could happen to an infant in the first year of life,” Dugan said. “So we address everything from drowning by talking about bath safety, to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) by talking about sleep safety.

“We address fire safety, pet safety, car seats, CPR, choking — anything that could land an infant in our ER.”

The pilot program quietly launched earlier this month at Good Samaritan's Eva Hill Auditorium and was attended by 23 expectant mothers. Each of them was also allowed to invite two people who would be helping them take care of their new babies.

Expectant moms received a punch card upon arrival that they used to collect stickers after exploring all the different safety topics and demonstrations.

They were able to practice how to properly install car seats using an actual Toyota Highlander back seat donated by the Toyota Boshoku plant in Lawrenceville, Illinois; learned how to put out a fire using a fire extinguisher; and became experts in properly wrapping baby mannequins in HALO SleepSacks.

“We tried to make it as interactive as possible,” Dugan said. “They had to touch, feel and do.”

Hospital nurses and volunteers manned booths at the shower, but those attending also heard from community organizations including the Vincennes Animal Shelter, Vincennes Township Fire Department, Knox County Healthy Families, Knox County Court-Appointed Special Advocates and smoking cessation representatives.

Once her card was full, each expectant mom received a kit that included an Evenflo car seat, carbon monoxide detector, HALO SleepSack, PURPLE Crying booklet and DVD, and a bath thermometer duck.

The pilot launch also included a one-hour “train-the-trainer” session, when Good Samaritan staffers sat down with representatives from other hospitals so they could explain how the safety shower came together.

“(Jamie) Dugan went through, step by step, how we set it up to that point and then they just walked around the room, watched how it went, asked questions as the evening went on,” said Mary Pargin, the hospital's trauma program manager.

Though the official survey results haven't been evaluated yet, the word-of-mouth feedback was all positive — except for one thing.

“We did hear that we needed a bigger spot with a little more room,” trauma registrar Sydney Byrne said. “It was pretty crowded.”

Now that the hospital has the pilot launch under its belt, Good Samaritan can start helping other trauma center-certified hospitals with their own baby safety showers and train-the-trainer sessions.

The trauma department has already scheduled several, Dugan said, and in September the program will circle back to Knox County so Good Samaritan can host its second “Baby Safety Shower” program, complete with some add-ons and other improvements.

“We're going to have more interaction at the September shower,” Dugan said.

Miranda Newberry, trauma nurse coordinator, said that the hospital will also host a certified passenger safety technician course in the fall, which will pave the way for events such as carseat checks and “booster bashes” when parents can have their cars and carseats properly inspected for safety.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Good Samaritan's trauma department, Dugan said, will check back in with those who attended the inaugural event a year from now to find out how their journeys as parents have been going.

“They'll receive child-proofing kit, too, because at that point, their babies will be on the move,” she said. “So if they stay in contact with us, we'll be able to get a measurement that will tell us if this made a difference. Did this, in 100 percent of the cases, prevent child mortality for these 23 mothers?

“And since we'll be involved with other showers around the state, we'll look at the return on investment in those other places, too.”

Pargin noted that the ultimate goal for the shower program is to bring down the infant mortality rate and ER visits — and that starts by addressing the risk factors.

Contributors that drive up infant mortality rates, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, include preterm birth, low birth weight, birth defects, pregnancy complications, SIDS and accidents.

The baby safety shower program is intended, Dugan said, for high-risk populations, such as areas like Southwest Indiana that have high adult smoking rates.

Smoking while pregnant can cause a baby to be born too early or have a low birth weight, according to the CDC, making it more likely the baby will be sick and have to stay in the hospital longer. A few babies will even die.

Smoking during and after pregnancy is also a risk factor of SIDS.

“We really want to improve all those risk factors here,” Pargin said. “We want to make sure everybody is getting the prenatal care that they need, work on our moms' smoking rate, make sure babies are in the right carseats, and address all those other factors.”

While the grant funding must be utilized by the end of this year, Pargin said the hope is to continue the safety shower program, though Good Samaritan will have to figure out a way to fund it.