Thanks to Harvey Karp for the clarification that it is not a blinded study
to compare comforting techniques.  I still have a quibble.  I am not aware
that there is something called a 'controlled' study.
One controls for confounding variables, most often through random allocation
of subjects to an experimental group or a control, not *controlled*, group.
Random allocation strives to insure that the groups will be as similar as
possible in every respect EXCEPT the intervention you are trying to test.
There is something called a case-control study, normally retrospective
studies, in which one finds subjects having the characteristic one wants to
study, and then compares them with one or more controls, which are subjects
not having the particular characteristic, but resembling the case subject as
closely as possible, such as in age, gender, social circumstances, etc.  For
things like SIDS, case-control studies are the most numerous because
prospective randomized studies raise insurmountable ethical problems.  (This
means that a lot of the evidence we have about factors influencing risk of
SIDS is not as strong, epidemiologically, as evidence we have about other
things which lend themselves to study by prospective clinical trials.)

From the description it seems that the planned study of the five S's is an
experimental study with random allocation to the five S group or the
traditional comfort measure group.  This is often called a prospective
randomized clinical trial and if well designed to control for confounding
variables, would be able to provide high-quality information on how the two
groups compare.
I may seem nit-picky here, because I am.  I want us to be aware that
different kinds of design are needed to answer different kinds of research
questions.  I want people who use research in their work to know the
difference between control group and controlled variable, and the difference
between single- and double blinding, and a lot of other distinctions, like
randomization vs convenience samples, and prospective vs retrospective
studies.

Rachel Myr
Cochrane junkie 
Kristiansand, Norway

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