Cardinal Glennon safety program empowers families with knowledge, resources to prevent childhood injuries
Over pizza in the Birthright St. Louis office in Hazelwood, five expectant mothers learned a new set of ABCs.
Babies sleep Alone
On their Backs
In a bare Crib
(and Don’t overheat them).
Kait Vogel, injury prevention Safe Kids coordinator for SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital, teaches the baby safety class on a monthly basis at Birthright St. Louis, rotating among its three office locations. Birthright St. Louis is one of several community organizations that the Cardinal Glennon safety program partners with to bring injury prevention education and resources to children and families in 14 counties in the St. Louis area.
Cardinal Glennon is the lead agency for Safe Kids St. Louis. Two main components of the safety program are baby safety classes and car seat distribution and education, which provides car seats to families in need through the Cardinal Glennon clinic and area fire departments and educates people to become child passenger safety technicians, said Tiffany Taylor, the Cardinal Glennon trauma program manager who oversees the safety program.
The program also includes areas like bike helmet fittings, drowning prevention and home safety tips. In response to the growing number of children accidentally ingesting fentanyl, they’ve started giving away narcan with every Graco Pack ‘N Play. Gun locks are available, no questions asked, in SSM Health emergency room and clinics.
“Anything to prevent childhood injury or harm is the goal of the program,” Tiffany said.
At the baby safety class at Birthright, Kait, the Safe Kids coordinator, shared that 30% of the 2023 childhood deaths in Missouri were preventable.
“For kiddos less than 1, their primary cause of death that’s preventable is unsafe sleep,” Kait said. “So we do a lot when it comes to expecting parents and new parents on safe sleep education.”
At the baby safety class, each participant receives a free Pack ‘N Play portable crib, fitted sheet, sleep sack, educational materials, and a voucher for a car seat to be installed in their car close to their due date.
“Parents are amazed by what they learn and feel empowered to not only provide a safe sleep environment for their child at home, but a large portion of the class is teaching them the education so they feel empowered to go educate those who are going to be interacting with their child,” she said. “Because realistically, that child is not only going to sleep in the presence of their parents or guardians, they’re going to be sleeping with their grandparents or a babysitter, whatever that looks like.”
Most people now know safe sleep basics, like putting babies down on their backs to go to sleep, Kait said. But new parents might not realize that for the first six months of a child’s life, they breathe only through their nose, so it’s vital to keep their nose free of congestion. They might be surprised to learn that kids can drown not just in a large pool but in as little as six inches of water — a shallow tub or even a mop bucket, she said.
Before taking her current role, Kait worked as a nurse in the Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital emergency room. “So I saw firsthand the realities of preventable injuries. It truly happens to anyone,” she said. “It’s not one specific socio-economic group or race that’s affected by these preventable injuries — I’ve seen all walks of life come in through the front doors of our ER.”
She’s proud of the number of families they reach each year, including working with foster families through Cardinal Glennon’s foster care clinic. Foster care placements can often happen without much advance notice, “so we get the opportunity to bridge that gap, if it be home safety items, car seat education or installation, Pack ‘N Plays, gun locks, whatever it is.”
They also provide Pack ‘N Plays to fire departments and emergency medical services teams. “So when they go out to calls, if they identify unsafe sleep situations or a family in need of a safe sleep resource, they’re able to, in the moment, provide that education and directly provide that resource, which touches a lot of families we would never see walk through our doors here at Glennon,” she said.
Cardinal Glennon’s safety program has partnered with Birthright since 2014. The education and resources have been hugely beneficial for the pregnant and postpartum women Birthright serves, Birthright St. Louis executive director Maureen Zink said.
“It’s a confidence builder for them, because they take charge of their baby and take charge of their home or their situation and make safety a priority,” she said.
The safety classes are among many ways Birthright supports pregnant and postpartum women, including free counseling, partnerships with Catholic Legal Assistance Ministry, financial literacy classes, daycare assistance and more, she added.
“It’s our mission for our women to be able to provide a safe and healthy space for their family,” Maureen said. “So we want them to be mentally ready, and we want them to know resources for things they may need from the community.”
Cardinal Glennon Safety Program
The SSM Health Cardinal Glennon safety program is dedicated to the wellbeing and safety of children of all ages. As the lead agency for Safe Kids St. Louis, Cardinal Glennon provides education and resources to prevent childhood injuries. Program offerings include infant and child CPR classes, baby safety classes, safe sleep resources, free car seats and installation and more. To learn more, visit glennon.org/safetyprogram.
