Disproportionate Enforcement of a Hospital’s Safe Sleep Policy for Racial and Ethnic Minority Families

Disparities suggestive of systemic racism were identified in the enforcement of a children's hospital safe sleep policy. For hospitals looking to adopt or revise safe sleep policies, the authors suggest careful consideration of potential impacts on already systemically marginalized families. We suggest replacing punitive consequences of policy nonadherence with interventions to facilitate behavior change in the hospital and after discharge.