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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (May 15, 2023)
sNok signflz MAY 15, 2023 11 Tribal member advocates for cradleboard acceptance By Danielle Harrison Smoke Signals assistant editor/staff writer Tribal member Valeria Atanacio has long wanted to see cradleboards become more accepted in child care settings, but was onding the lack of knowledge surrounding this tradi- tional practice frustrating. As the Tribal Affairs director for the Oregon Early Learning Divi- sion, she has encountered misun- derstandings from pediatricians and others when cradleboards were brought up in meetings regarding their use and relevance in child care settings, particularly in facilities op- erated by Tribes or those that serve Indigenous communities. So, she teamed up with Ai Binh Ho, a fellow with the American Council of Learned Societies who focuses on innovations in child care access at the Better Life Lab, to co-author an article discussing the beneots of cradleboard use in early learning environments. The two recently published their article in Early Learning Nation, an independent early learning magazine. <We started working on this to bring awareness regarding cradle- board use and acceptance,= Atanacio says. <We9ve had top-level people within state government and pe- diatrics associations who have not bought into the idea of supporting cradleboard use. We decided we needed to write this. There is a need of more awareness and advocacy for best practices and more policies that support Tribes teaching this.= In the past, Atanacio has served as the Grand Ronde Tribe9s Teen Pregnancy Prevention coordinator and worked as an assistant pre- school teacher for several years. Now Photo by Michelle Alaimo Tribal member Valeria Atanacio co-authored an article about the benefits of using cradleboards in early learning and child care environments. She is the Tribal Affairs director for the Oregon Department of Education Early Learning Division. 33, she has years of education and experience in child care settings, as well as lived experience of using cradleboards with her now 7- and 5-year-old daughters when they were infants. She and her sister, Isabella Atana- cio, shared a cradleboard when their eldest children were born approxi- mately at the same time. <The sensory sort of experience of the child is different in a cradle board than it would be for a baby lying down in a bassinette and this deonitely increases the child's awareness and ability to kind of like learn what their body feels like in those moments of & just like being held and comfortable in that way,= she says. <I think that9s important and one thing that it did for me as a parent was it allowed me to take some breaks because a lot of times Introduction to Construction Training Ofering entry level skills training for individuals interested in construc}on careers. Receive over 40 hours of training including: ÷ ÷ ÷ OSHA 10 Cer}oca}on Basic First Aid / CPR Card Entry Level Equipment Opera}on: Skid Steer Manliv Telehandler Trainees will also be invited to engage with poten}al employers. Tui}on: $35004Waived for those who qualify. To receive addi}onal details, including registra}on informa}on complete the online form located at: htps://forms.oïce.com/r/ThrkzJkbKB *SCHEDULE: GENERAL INFORMATION: Mon.4Fri.; 8:00 a.m.45:00 p.m. June 549, 2023 Individuals must be at least 18 Years old to register and must be an enrolled tribal member of a federally recognized tribe @Knife River Training Center 35973 Kennel Rd. SE, Albany OR Tui}on support is provided through a Future Ready Oregon Grant via the Willamete Workforce Partnership. A complete Future Ready Oregon applica}on package will be required of all trainees who receive tui}on support. *Schedule may be subject to change due to registra}on or training connicts. Complete request for registra}on/ at: All trainees must have a valid drivers license, and comp/steel toed footwear4all other PPE will be provided. Consistent par}cipa}on during training is required. Any absence Willamete Workforce Partnership/Knife River Training Center is an equal opportunity program/employer. Language assistance is available to individuals with limited English proociency free of cost. Auxiliary aids or services are available upon request to individuals with disabili}es. Oregon Relay 1.800.735.2900 as a new parent you tend to hold your baby a lot and no one says put down your baby because then they will cry when you put them down. So it really did allow for me to put down my babies without that guilt. They were content. So it worked out and helped me.= Atanacio spoke of this experience in the article: <The cradleboard 3 its construction, movement among family members, and history 3 is a unique product that brings old and new family members together, rebuilding ties severed by boarding school. & The cradleboard is much more than a sleeping appa- ratus; it is a rite of passage for Indig- enous parents in my community. It is a journey home after generations of being forced out of our homes and away from our families.= The article further explains that cradleboard use in most child care centers is only permitted through an exemption process that requires a pediatrician9s authorization. <The exemption process signals to parents that their care practices are inferior, and demand the oversight of a pediatrician that positions the parents as ignorant, when, in real- ity, the majority of physicians are unfamiliar with cradleboards.= The article points to several nation- al and Tribal studies that conclude cradleboards are one of the safest sleep surfaces to prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, or SIDS. <The First Nations Health Au- thority, the National Institute for Children9s Health Quality, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development have all identified the cradleboard as 8one of the safest alternative sleep surfaces9 that can prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDs). The National Institute of Health and Human Development-led Healthy Native Babies Project names cradle- boards as a culturally appropriate infant sleep surface.= As a member of the state Safe Sleep Coalition, Atanacio is advo- cating for cradleboard use as a cul- turally acceptable practice in SIDS prevention, despite some pushback. <We heard from some more vo- cal personalities in the group that there wasn9t any research on this so they couldn9t endorse it,= she said. <Coming from an advocacy lens and knowing all the work that the nine Tribes are doing to bring culture back at the beginning of life, and recognizing their sovereignty, this was just always kind of like a dark cloud or something over it because as a state agency we oversee all of the licensing for child care and ad- ministration. Within our roles there is this really specific way of how infants and toddlers should sleep in programs and that hasn9t always been inclusive of different cultural communities.= Since the article was published in late April, Atanacio said feedback has been positive. <This is a platform where we could have an innuence in this sector of work by sharing what we know,= she says. <I9ve gotten e-mails from our communities that we work with here in Oregon including the direc- tor from the Multnomah County Preschool for All, who shared and helped elevate the article.= Atanacio says she plans to con- tinue her advocacy regarding cra- dleboards. <What is really important is help- ing the folks who are in the oeld, to help them understand what a cradleboard is and having a network of resources to point them to,= she says. þ