Infant safe sleeping

Please note that some guidelines may be past their review date. The review process is currently paused. It is recommended that you also refer to more contemporaneous evidence.

Victorian healthcare professionals play an important role in providing parents/caregivers with safe sleeping advice for infants, and in ensuring maternity and neonatal settings model appropriate sleep practices. 

Safe sleeping clinical guidance

This guidance provides an easy-to-use quick reference guide for health services and care providers who are supporting parents/caregivers before and after the birth of their infant. 

Download the guidance

Use this guidance to:

• provide all parents with advice about safe sleeping for their infant as part of routine ante-natal and post-natal care
• use safe sleeping practices in all maternity and neonatal settings to role model the appropriate practices to parents.

Implementation checklist

Parents are significantly influenced by the practices of healthcare professionals observed in the hospital setting, so it is imperative that staff model recommended safe sleeping practices.

Download our sample checklist to implement the guidance in your health service.

Background

The need for statewide safe infant sleeping guidance has been highlighted through recent coronial findings. They have called for consistent advice to be provided to parents regarding the practice of co-sleeping (sharing the same sleep surface).

This guideline was developed by an expert working group of clinicians and consumer representatives. It was peer reviewed and opened to public feedback before publication.