More Than Medicine: How Smith County Memorial Hospital Is Supporting Families Through Safe Sleep Education

In a rural community, healthcare is about more than what happens inside the walls of a hospital. It’s about knowing your neighbors, recognizing the needs of local families and finding ways to make the entire community healthier and stronger.

At Smith County Memorial Hospital, that commitment can be seen in a new Safe Sleep educational campaign led by nurses Whitney Winder and Laura Kingsbury.

The initiative aims to educate parents, grandparents and caregivers about safe sleep practices and help prevent sleep-related infant deaths. But it’s also another example of the ways local healthcare professionals are going beyond their everyday roles to care for Smith County families.

Bringing Safe Sleep Education to Smith County

The idea for the Safe Sleep campaign began through research Laura Kingsbury conducted as part of her work supporting Smith County Memorial Hospital’s Level IV Trauma designation.

As SCMH’s Trauma Coordinator, injury prevention and community education are an important part of Laura’s role. The hospital’s prevention efforts are guided by trends seen in the Emergency Room as well as statewide injury data, helping the team identify opportunities to address injuries before they happen.

What she found highlighted an important opportunity for education.

According to Kansas data from 2020 through 2024, sleep-related deaths were the leading cause of death among infants in the state. Of the 221 sleep-related deaths identified in the data, 96% involved one or more elements of unsafe sleep. When suffocation was identified as one of the top six priorities in the 2026–2030 Kansas Unintentional Injury Prevention Plan, Laura saw an opportunity to bring that focus closer to home. She found a Safe Sleep course and reached out to SCMH OB Nurse Manager Whitney Winder to collaborate, ultimately leading to the Safe Sleep education initiative now being shared with local families.

For Winder supporting families during pregnancy, birth and the months that follow is already a significant part of her work.

“Our goal with this Safe Sleep Campaign is to simply bring awareness to the issue,” Winder said. “We cannot fix what we do not know.”

Just as importantly, the campaign isn't about making parents feel guilty about choices they may have made in the past.

“We emphasize in our classes that this is not to shame anyone who has not followed safe sleep guidelines in the past,” Winder said. “Everyone does the best they can do with the information they have. Our hope is that this information gives parents and caregivers of all ages a little more confidence and peace of mind.”

Remember the ABCs of Safe Sleep

If there is one thing Winder and Kingsbury want families to remember, it’s the ABCs of Safe Sleep:

A: Alone

B: Back

C: Crib

The campaign also encourages parents, caregivers and even those purchasing gifts for babies to become informed consumers. Families can visit the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission at cpsc.gov to check product safety ratings, recalls and warnings, particularly when purchasing or receiving used baby products.

Parents may also encounter the term Sudden Unexplained Infant Death, or SUID, on product warning labels and educational materials. SUID describes any sudden or unexpected death of a child younger than 1 year of age.

Through education like this, the goal is to give families practical information they can use at home while creating greater awareness throughout the community.

Wearing Many Hats to Care for Local Families

The Safe Sleep campaign is only one piece of the support Winder, Kingsbury and their colleagues provide to families in Smith County.

Like many professionals working in rural healthcare, Winder wears several hats.

In addition to serving as OB nurse manager, she is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, Certified Child Passenger Safety Technician, childbirth education instructor and Certified Safe Sleep Instructor. She also provides patient care as a registered nurse on the acute care floor, through outpatient services and in the emergency room.

Those certifications translate into resources local families can actually use.

Winder and her coworkers provide one-on-one education, group classes and community education; help new parents, grandparents and other caregivers properly install and check car seats; assist families with breastfeeding questions and concerns; and support parents throughout pregnancy, delivery and beyond.

It’s a level of care that goes far beyond a single appointment.

Rural Healthcare With a Personal Connection

Access to quality healthcare is an important part of choosing where to build a life and raise a family. In Smith County, having those resources close to home comes with another advantage: the opportunity to know the people providing your care.

For Winder, that's one of the most rewarding parts of working in rural healthcare.

“It’s truly an honor and passion of mine to play a role in bringing new life into this world and supporting parents and caregivers with all the things that come along with that,” Winder said. “Doing so in a small community such as ours is even more rewarding! We get to form real relationships with these families and watch them and their children grow.”

That relationship-centered approach is part of what makes healthcare in Smith County special.

Programs like the Safe Sleep campaign demonstrate what can happen when healthcare professionals see a need and take the initiative to meet it. They educate. They advocate. They connect families with resources. "No one would to experience an infant death.  Educating ourselves and keeping up to date on current safe practices is better than living with the same practices. The saying we have always done it this way should be changed to learning is growing," stated Kingsbury.

And because they live and work alongside the people they serve, they get to see the impact long after families leave the hospital.

For families considering where to put down roots, those resources matter.

Because choosing a community isn't just about finding a place to live. It's about finding a place where people are invested in helping you and your family thrive.

Choose exceptional care. Choose a community that cares. Choose Smith County. Want to learn more about what makes our community special? Explore the Choose Smith County campaign and discover the opportunities, resources and people shaping the future of Smith County.