Baby-Saving Campaign
Jill Porter - 10/01/04

 FINALLY, powerful momentum is building in the campaign to save infants from dying while sharing a bed with other people.
 More than 200 people have responded to an offer for free cribs. And influential allies have joined the effort to prevent babies from dying simply because they don't have a safe place to sleep.
 This comes in the aftermath of columns I wrote about the staggering number of Philadelphia infants who've died while co-sleeping, and the city's failure to warn the public about the danger.
 Every family who asked for a crib will get one; 115 have already been ordered.
 And the head of Gov. Rendell's Pittsburgh regional office has volunteered to help Philadelphia duplicate Cribs for Kids, the hugely successful giveaway program he helped launch in Allegheny County six years ago.
 The governor's regional representative here, former managing director Joe Certaine, also said he'd be willing to explore how the state can help.
 "We're so glad that the word has gotten out to families and that they now have a way to get what they need to keep their babies safe," said JoAnne Fischer, head of the Maternity Care Coalition.
 Fischer's nonprofit agency is operating a pilot program of Cribs for Kids with $10,000 from Ronald McDonald charities and other small grants.
 "We didn't expect to spend it in a month," she said.
 But callers have swamped the phones in the three weeks since my columns appeared.
 The agency, best known for the MOMobile, a traveling van that brings health-care information to pregnant women and new parents in low-income neighborhoods, has received a total of 222 calls, including requests from 10 social-service agencies whose clients need help.
 "We've talked to moms, dads, grandparents, foster parents, stepparents, aunts and great-aunts of babies who need cribs," said program director Karen Pollack.
 But more money is needed for the portable cribs the agency buys for families, who frequently move from place to place. And the agency also needs donations of the far-more-expensive full-sized cribs for larger babies.
 So far this year, 27 babies have died, mostly from asphyxiation, while sharing a bed with other people.
 The columns exposed the fact that Health Department officials ignored that tragic trend rather than anger militant supporters of co-sleeping - including some breast-feeding activists - by acknowledging its dangers.
 Now, at the urging of Managing Director Phil Goldsmith, the city is scrambling to respond to the issue. The Health Department is joining with the Department of Human Services to develop an public-awareness campaign that may be unveiled as early as next week.
 As part of that effort, Health Commissioner John Domzalski sought help from Judy Bannon, director and founder of the Allegheny County's Cribs for Kids program.
 Bannon in turn enlisted Bob O'Connor, head of Rendell's Pittsburgh regional office, who offered to accompany her to meetings with Domzalski and other city officials next month.
 O'Connor, a former Pittsburgh City Council president who helped launch the crib giveaway program there in 1998, cautioned that his involvement is as a board member of Cribs for Kids and not as Rendell's formal representative.
 But he said he'd gladly bring state visibility to the issue and ask Philadelphia officials "how they'd want the governor's office to be involved."
 Certaine, O'Connor's counterpart in Philadelphia, said he would be willing to help.
 "This is in the best interest of the commonwealth," said Certaine, director of the governor's Southeastern regional office.
 "We're talking about our babies here. I don't see where anybody would not be in favor of doing something to help resolve this."