Safe Sleep: One Family’s Commitment to Injury Prevention for All Children
Claire Whitten Raphael was filled with light, a 10-month old who brought boundless joy to those around her. Claire was lost in 2015 to a preventable injury, but her light didn’t go out – it now shows the way for all those who work to keep kids safe.
Shayna and Justin Raphael, Claire’s parents, have committed themselves to working on child product safety and supporting families by providing resources, educating those who care for children and speaking up as advocates nationwide and in their local community.
“For the first couple years, I felt like the one thing I could do to still protect Claire was to not talk about what had happened. But I started to see people working on this issue, and it helped me become comfortable sharing my story. Now, in her memory, I want to help make things better for others.”
Claire was placed in an unsafe sleeping environment — on an adult mattress — at an in-home child care setting, leading the Raphaels to start The Claire Bear Foundation, with a mission to “enhance infant safety and reduce infant mortality.” This includes providing safe sleep products to families in financial need, offering bereavement support and working in coalition with a range of organizations committed to child safety.
Access to data and insights from the CDC, including the CDC Injury Center, are central to this work, helping injury prevention experts and advocates identify hazard patterns that may point to a product flaw. But current planned changes in the federal government could impede or stop this lifesaving work.
One example is the innovative National Electronic Injury Surveillance System, which has operated for more than 45 years. Today, it receives more than 25,000 reported cases of injury annually. “Knowing that we can lose access to the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System that the CDC funds is horrific. That data is what we use when setting product safety standards that help us keep kids safe.”
Raphael notes that CDC’s injury prevention work is foundational and has a significant ripple effect. “CDC is the focal point, providing key insights to other agencies and partnering to prevent injuries, support families, and keep infants safe.” This same principle extends to other parts of the federal government, with Raphael lamenting the recent termination of the Safe Sleep campaign at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
She is committed to working on system change, but also does a lot of one-to-one work to support and educate parents. “There's still so much inequity when it comes to access to safety information. That's why on my social media, I try to break everything down into the smallest parts so people don't have to sift through 10 policy pages to find the answers they need.”
Her voice — and Claire’s story — are uniquely powerful in helping parents understand the real risks of unsafe sleep practices. “I can be side-by-side with a physician who is saying the exact same things about keeping kids safe, but sometimes my words carry even more weight. Ours is a real story. We’re very open about grief and what it’s like.”
Raphael is certain, though, that policymakers must act to protect children. “If there's one thing we can all agree on, it's that our infants and children have the right to grow up and be safe. That’s the common goal, and we as a society have a responsibility to find a solution that's going to work.”
Shayna Raphael is the co-founder of The Claire Bear Foundation
Do you have a story to share about the impact of the CDC Injury Prevention Center and the work you’ve been able to do? If so, please share it with us.
