Straight Talk for Infant Safe Sleep is an innovative, evidence-based training program for nurses, community health providers, social service agencies and faithbased groups closely aligned with families. The safe sleep guidelines developed by the American Academy of Pediatrics are reviewed in depth and, most importantly, the reasoning behind these recommendations. We discuss socio-economic and cultural beliefs present in the community that could prevent families from adopting the safe sleep recommendations and explore implicit biases that might influence the way in which information is presented. Our program is developed as a collaborative model - we are students as well as trainers, similar to the relationship the exists between care providers and families. We discuss ways in which participants can engage with families in a manner that respects their lived experiences while exploring optimal safe sleep situations and encouraging breastfeeding in a judgementfree manner
