LHSC first hospital in Ontario to educate new parents on reducing intentional infant injuries

Karen and Mike Garner, remember the sleepless nights. They remember the frustration and isolation they felt when they took home daughter Emily from the hospital two-years ago.

“She just wouldn’t stop crying,” 33-year old Karen says. “We swaddled her, we talked to her, we walked with her, we took her for rides in the car – nothing would soothe her.”

Luckily the Garners, both LHSC Nurses, had the support of friends, family, and each other to get them through the six-months of Emily’s inconsolable crying. For some families they aren’t so lucky. 43% of infant traumas admitted to LHSC’s Emergency Department are intentional. Give that, LHSC has taken action and implemented the Period of PURPLE Crying® education program for new parents.

In the program new moms and their partners are given the option of a one-on-one education session with a member of the health care team on managing and understanding their newborn’s crying, particularly inconsolable crying. This includes a take-home DVD with strategies to help soothe newborns. The program also outlines the lasting physical and neurological consequences that can occur from shaking your baby, including death.

“This is a program about giving parents coping strategies,” says Dr. Gary Joubert, Citywide Chief of Emergency Medicine and Director of paediatric emergency medicine, LHSC.

LHSC will be the first Ontario hospital to implement an education program of this kind. Funding for the program was provided by Children’s Health Foundation with the generous support of Foresters.

“I wish I would have known there were other parents out there who went through the same thing,” Karen says. “I am very happy to see that this education is out there now for new parents.”

For more information:
http://www.lhsc.on.ca/trauma/injury/sbs.htm