Del. David Bulova (D-37, center right) meets with constituents following the town hall meeting Jan. 31. Photo courtesy of Del. David Bulova (D-37).
On March 17, Governor McAuliffe signed into law House Bill 1515 sponsored by Del. David Bulova (D-37) to require that hospitals and others providing maternity care give new parents information on safe sleep environments for newborns.
The legislation was a priority recommendation of the State Child Fatality Review Team. The Review Team was established by the General Assembly to investigate fatalities involving children and to make recommendations for preventing fatalities.
According to a 2014 report by the Review Team: “In 2009, 119 infants less than one year of age died unexpectedly in a sleep environment in Virginia, approximately one infant every three days. After natural disease, sleep-related death is the leading cause of infant death in Virginia, a loss of life nearly 10 times the number of infants who died as a result of abusive head trauma and almost 30 times the number of infants who died in motor vehicle collisions.” House Bill 1515 was supported by the Medical Society of Virginia, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the American Council of Nurse Mid-Wives, and INOVA Health Systems.