Albany – New York State Assemblywoman Amy Paulin (D-88) is proud to announce that Chapter 106, legislation she authored to help increase public awareness and educate maternity patients about safe sleep practices regarding babies and infants, was signed into law by Governor Andrew Cuomo on Thursday.

Paulin’s legislation amends public health law to require that the informational leaflets provided by hospitals and birth centers to maternity patients include information relating to safe sleep.

Babies die from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and accidents during sleep each year in New York State. The Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) has noticed an increased number of fatalities reported to the Statewide Central Register in children, mainly infants, while they are sleeping.

"While the State Department of Health (DOH) and OCFS have worked cooperatively on developing brochures and other public information materials on safe sleep, we needed to increase our efforts to prevent infant deaths due to unsafe sleeping practices, including through direct outreach to birth parents," Paulin said.

Hospitals and birth centers are already required to provide information to maternity patients regarding shaken baby syndrome, maternal depression and statistics on maternity-related procedures such as cesarean sections performed at hospitals and birth centers. This legislation simply adds to that information and may take the form of a video.

“By adding to and improving the current information that is available to new mothers, we will build awareness of the risks associated with unsafe sleeping conditions and help parents provide safe sleeping environments for infants so that we can prevent tragic infant deaths and injuries,” Paulin said.

The bill was sponsored in the Senate by Andrew Lanza.