Score One For Babies
Jill Porter - 10/13/04

A full-fledged crib giveaway

 The safest place for a baby to sleep is on his back in a crib.
 So one local nonprofit agency is giving cribs away to families who can't afford them.
 The Maternity Care Coalition has given out 375 cribs to its clients and also helped 50 readers who responded to the offer in my column for a free crib.
 The agency - best known for the MOMobile, an outreach program that uses minivans to provide resources and education to pregnant women and new parents - is hoping to raise $175,000 for a even bigger crib giveaway, according to executive director JoAnne Fischer.
 The agency learned this week that the W. W. Smith Charitable Trusts is providing a $10,000 "challenge grant" for cribs, meaning it will match any donation for cribs up to $10,000.
 The crib giveaway is based on Allegheny County's hugely successful Cribs for Kids program, which has distributed 2,700 cribs to low-income families. The number of victims of sudden-infant-death syndrome plummeted there after the program began in 1998, according to its founder.
 Studies have shown, and Philadelphia's statistics bear it out, that more babies die while bed-sharing than when in their own cribs. Two thirds of the infants who died of SIDS here this year were sleeping with other people.
 MCC's Fischer estimates up to 125 cribs a month will be needed for Philadelphia families, to help prevent tragedies like the one that befell Gowander Lincoln.
 Seventeen years ago, Lincoln awoke and found her 2-month-old son dead after he'd slept in bed with her and her two older children.
 The death sent her reeling.
 "It seemed like I lost my mind a little, because I wasn't ever the same," said Lincoln, 39.
 Now her daughter is pregnant.
 And when Lincoln saw my recent column, she called to get a free crib. At least her grandchild will have a safe place to sleep. Tax-deductible donations to the Cribs for Kids campaign can be made to the Maternity Care Coalition and sent to 2000 Hamilton St. #205, Philadelphia, PA 19130. A $75 donation will pay for a crib and crib sheet. If you'd like a free crib, please call Karen Pollack at 215-972-0700.