BetaHCF Case Studies Library is in beta. We're still adding campaigns and fixing things.
HCF Case Studies Library

← All campaigns · Open in the library

Pēpi-Pod Program

Also: Pepi-Pod · Pēpi-Pod sleep space programme

Portable plastic baby bed with mattress and bedding, given with home-based safe sleep education to families at high SUDI risk, especially where there was smoking in pregnancy. It started as a cheaper alternative to the wahakura and was expanded in NZ (including after the Christchurch earthquakes) and adapted for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families in Queensland (2013-17) and South Australia.

Years
2011–now
Country
AustraliaNew Zealand
Topic
Infant sleep
Asks people to
Substitute
Strategy
Cultural tailoringEnvironmental support
Channel
Interpersonal
Audience
Parents
Families with known SUDI risk factors, mainly Māori, Pacific and Aboriginal

Evidence

ExperimentalMixed

RCT of 240 Māori and Pacific mothers (Counties Manukau): no difference in knowledge or bed sharing (about a quarter in both arms); pods used regularly by 46% at 2 months and 16% at 4 months. Safety study: no more bed sharing, head covering or prone sleep than a bassinet, but poorer maternal sleep. National distribution 2019-21 reached 15.9% of births but only 37.5% of smoking-exposed infants; 73% went to unexposed infants.

Sponsor (who paid)

  • Change for our Children (Christchurch) NGO
  • New Zealand District Health Boards / Ministry of Health Foreign government
  • Queensland and South Australian health services Foreign government

Credits (who made it)

Not recorded yet.

Related campaigns

Sources

  1. McIntosh C et al. Evaluation of a SUDI intervention programme (Pēpi-Pod RCT). J Paediatr Child Health 2017 evaluation · 2017 · DOI 10.1111/jpc.13772 · PMID 29125216
  2. Tipene-Leach D et al. The Pēpi-Pod study: overnight video, oximetry and thermal environment. J Paediatr Child Health 2018 evaluation · 2018 · DOI 10.1111/jpc.13845 · PMID 29357197
  3. Mitchell EA et al. Who is supplied with in-bed sleepers (Pēpi-Pod and wahakura)? J Paediatr Child Health 2025 evaluation · 2025 · DOI 10.1111/jpc.70136 · PMID 40626520
  4. Young J et al. Case study of a safe infant sleep strategy (Queensland Pēpi-Pod Program). Women Birth 2019 evaluation · 2019 · DOI 10.1016/j.wombi.2019.06.022 · PMID 31303540
  5. Grant J et al. 'It looks like a breadbox': Pepi-Pod pilot with Aboriginal families in South Australia. Prim Health Care Res Dev 2021 evaluation · 2021 · DOI 10.1017/S1463423621000293 · PMID 34109935
  6. Sivertsen N et al. Safe Sleep Education Blitz: pre-post survey. J Paediatr Child Health 2026 evaluation · 2026 · DOI 10.1111/jpc.70612 · PMID 42823627

Research notes

Created 2026-10-23 from the sleep campaign literature search (PubMed and web search; OpenAlex was unreachable), see docs/sleep-campaigns-literature.md. Findings are paraphrased from abstracts, not full texts; official URLs come from search results and were not opened. Start year 2011 is a guess (Christchurch earthquake rollout); verify with Change for our Children. Control arm in the RCT also got a portable cot, which diluted contrast.

Record cases/nz-pepi-pod.json, updated 2026-10-23· Link to this campaign