According to the resource center for the national sudden and unexpected infant/child death and pregnancy loss consortium (SUID/SIDS) sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is the third leading cause of infant death for 2009 and the leading death for infants from 1-12 months; these statistics are from the United States, which have declined drastically since 1999 (National SUID/SID Resource Center Statistics, February 2013, p. 1). America comes in second in the highest numbers of SIDS after New Zealand, with the lowest number of SIDS in countries such as Japan and Netherlands.
There seem to be a few commonalities in both countries, for example, many of these deaths are primarily among the disadvantaged, poor, many from racial and ethnic groups. In America the highest seems to be from non- Hispanics, blacks, and American Indians, and in New Zealand the highest number of SIDS were from the Maori’s, an ethnic group. According to Mitchell et al. (1993) in New Zealand the highest numbers again appear to be in those infants from the ethnic group the Maori, as compared to non-Maori group (13).
This reason this topic is of great interest to me, is because I know of an infant who died as a result of SIDS, in the late 80’s. He was 12 months old, when his mother found him in his crib, the autopsy revealed that it had been SIDS. The impact of this death was overwhelming to everyone, but most significant on the parents, who were doting parents. I have since been an advocate for educating young mothers of the importance of placing infants on their backs to sleep, and of maintaining the crib and or area where the infant is free from any objects which can cause entanglement and or suffocation.
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Magda.
Hi Magda,
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