Research led by nurses at Huntsville Hospital for Women & Children is giving hospitals across the country clearer ways to identify when newborns may be at higher risk of falling during their birth hospitalization.
The multi-hospital study appears in the July/August 2026 issue of MCN: The American Journal of Maternal/Child Nursing. Researchers examined 88 newborn falls at 15 hospitals and identified 11 factors linked to increased risk. The findings build on more than 14 years of newborn safety work that started at Women & Children in 2012.
At the time, little published research existed on newborn falls. A team of 14 mother-baby nurses, led by longtime clinical educator Rose Mary Ainsworth, developed a prevention program that included staff and parent education, bedside practices and one of the nation’s first newborn fall-prevention assessment scales. Falls dropped at the hospital, and other facilities began asking for guidance. Many adopted the Huntsville scale…