Infant positioning and SIDS. Acceptance of the nonprone position among clinic mothers.

In April 1992, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that healthy infants not be placed prone to sleep because of the association between the prone sleeping position and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). We determined the awareness and acceptance of this recommendation among 190 mothers attending a community health center pediatric clinic in the first year after the recommendation. Ninety-seven women (51.1%) had heard the recommendation. The compliance with the recommendation among women who had heard it was 63.9% (62 of 97). Fifty-three percent of all the mothers worried that their infant would choke in the supine position. More education is necessary in this population to improve acceptance of this new recommendation and to correct misinformation about the supine position.