Protecting Your Newborn. Instructor's Guide.

This guide is intended to help instructors educate new and expectant parents about safely transporting their newborn babies. The guide accompanies a 27-minute video, developed by the National Traffic Safety Administration, which introduces some of the key safety issues that new parents should consider during their baby's first 6 months of life. The guide contains the following sections: (1) "Background Information," outlining key safety issues from birth to six months; (2) "Teaching Safety to the Expectant Parent," (3) "The 'Protecting Your Newborn' Video," an English-language script of the video (video also available in Spanish); (4) "Attitude Counts: Positive Parenting," addressing parent concerns about stress and potential abuse; (5) "Transporting Baby Safely," giving information on infant car seats and traveling with an infant; (6) "Home Safe Home: Preparing the Home for the New Arrival," including crib safety and prevention of suffocation, drowning, poisoning, and fires and burns; (7) "Resources and Tools: Reproducible Parent Handouts," including top 10 safety tips, car airbag safety, preschoolers and school-age children in the car, and facts about Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. A list of additional resources for parents concludes the guide. The companion video details infant car seat and car air bag safety. (HTH)