Welcome to the Cribs for Kids Professional Training Series™! This training series is a collection of educational modules targeted to professionals that have a distinct opportunity to engage with families of infants, support safe sleep practices, and ultimately help prevent cases of Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SUID). Each module concludes with a 20-question post-test. Upon completion of your chosen module, you’ll receive a Safe Sleep Professional badge and certificate.
How It Works
STEP 1
Complete the Safe Sleep Ambassador Training
Before starting any of the Professional Training Modules, you must complete the Safe Sleep Ambassador Training. This training provides the foundational knowledge on infant safe sleep and is a prerequisite for all other modules.
NOTE: You must have completed the training within the past 6 months to proceed.
STEP 2
Choose a Professional Training Module
Once you have completed the Safe Sleep Ambassador training, you’re ready to begin. Choose the module(s) most relevant to your work, or complete them all to increase your impact!
To view each module’s content click the plus sign (+) to expand and the X to collapse each section.
Child Care Professional Training Module
With over two-thirds of U.S. families relying on child care, professional child care providers play a crucial role in keeping infants safe, particularly from SUID and deaths due to suffocation. This module will teach you how to:
- Communicate effectively with parents about safe sleep
- Create a safe and consistent sleep environment
- Develop clear protocols to ensure safe sleep is practiced daily – for every nap and every infant
If you are a casual child care provider (i.e. a family member, friend, neighbor, babysitter, etc.), the Safe Sleep Ambassador training will sufficiently prepare you to follow safe sleep practices in your role. However, you are welcome to complete this training for further learning.
Safe Sleep Screening Tool
This tool is designed to help child care providers identify potential risk and protective factors for SUID for each infant in their care, and to help guide safe sleep conversations with families.
Safe Sleep FAQs
Discussing safe sleep often comes with curiosity and questions. This handout includes answers to some of the most common questions child care providers may have, helping them further support families.
Child Welfare Professional Training Module
Did you know infants involved with child protective services are at a higher risk of SUID than other infants? This module discusses these risk factors and how to protect against them, while offering practical strategies for child welfare caseworkers to support safe sleep at home visits. Discover how your role in child welfare gives you a powerful opportunity to reduce the risk of SUID and sleep-related infant deaths.
Safe Sleep Assessment Tool
This tool is designed to help caseworkers assess an infant’s sleep environment, document their risk factors for SUID, and record any safe sleep resources provided to the family. It can be started prior to the home visit and finished with the family.
Safe Sleep Frequently Asked Questions
Discussing safe sleep often comes with curiosity and questions. This handout includes answers to some of the most common questions caregivers might ask at the home visit.
Doula Professional Training Module
Doulas are trusted partners for families throughout pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period, creating powerful opportunities to support safe infant sleep. This module explores how to naturally incorporate evidence-based safe sleep education into your practice, navigate culturally responsive and family-centered conversations, and help caregivers create realistic plans for a safe sleep environment. Learn how your unique role helps build confidence and empower informed decision-making to prevent sleep-related infant deaths.
First Responders Professional Training Module
EMS providers, firefighters, and law enforcement officers often encounter families with infants during emergency calls. This training will help you efficiently assess an infant’s sleep environment and will provide tips for engaging with the family regardless of the nature of the call. Resources are also provided for connecting families in need with safe sleep spaces.
30 Second Screening Tool
This safe sleep screening tool was originally developed in partnership with the City of Pittsburgh Emergency Medical Services (EMS) following a rise in infant sleep-related deaths in 2024. Pittsburgh EMS identified a need for a portable, easy-to-use resource that helps first responders quickly assess infant sleep environments, recognize unsafe sleep practices, and identify when additional caregiver education or follow-up is needed. The tool also allows providers to document when a family needs a safe sleep space and coordinate the delivery of a donated crib, supporting timely intervention and resource connection.
One year after implementation, the City of Pittsburgh reported a more than 45% reduction in infant deaths. Now available for broader use, this tool helps first responders integrate safe sleep screening into dynamic, on-scene interactions and reinforces infant safe sleep as a public safety priority. The tool can also be co-branded with your agency’s logo.
As Assistant Chief Mark Pinchalk shared: “These are deaths we often can’t resuscitate our way out of – so we need to prevent them.”
Learn More About Pittsburgh EMS’ Experience:
Pittsburgh rise in sleep-related infant deaths prompts solutions | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Sudden Unexplained Infant Deaths in Pittsburgh drop | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Home Visitor Professional Training Module
Home visitors such as social workers, lactation counselors, early intervention specialists, and nurses are uniquely positioned to observe infant sleep environments firsthand. If you are a home visitor of any kind, learn how to leverage your skills and the benefits of home visiting to reinforce safe sleep practices and reduce the risk of SUID.
Please note: If you are a home visitor who primarily works with families struggling with substance use, you may prefer the Child Welfare training as it focuses on substance exposure as a risk factor for SUID and also provides a framework to guide home visits.
Safe Sleep Assessment Tool
This tool is designed to help homevisitors assess an infant’s sleep environment, document their risk factors for SUID, and record any safe sleep resources provided to the family. It can be started prior to the home visit and finished with the family.
Safe Sleep Frequently Asked Questions
Discussing safe sleep often comes with curiosity and questions. This handout includes answers to some of the most common questions caregivers might ask at the home visit.
Nursing Professional Training Module
Nurses working across the perinatal spectrum of care and through an infant’s first year of life play a vital role in educating, supporting, and screening for safe sleep. This training will equip you to consistently model safe sleep in a variety of clinical contexts and to lead confident conversations that prepare all families to practice safe sleep at home. Certificates of completion are available at no cost, while certificates for continuing education credit are $15.00. Please see details below.
Please note: If you are a nurse who primarily works in the patient’s home, you may also benefit from the free Home Visitor training, as it provides content specific to the home environment and utilizes a home visiting framework.
The University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing and Cribs for Kids Inc. are jointly providing nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) contact hours for the educational activity entitled: Professional Training Series for Infant Safe Sleep- Nursing Module. Nurses completing the entire activity achieve a passing score of 90%, and completing the evaluation tool will be awarded a maximum of 1.0 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD). The University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.
