Until the mid-1990s, there were tens of thousands of infants who died suddenly in their sleep (Berger, 2012). SIDS was also called "crib death" in North America and "cot death" in England. Infants who seemed completely healthy before going to sleep would never wake up.
SIDS was a mystery until a scientist named Susan Beal made a breakthrough while she was studying SIDS deaths in South Australia. In the text, Berger (2012) writes, "Beal discovered an ethnic variation: Australian babies of Chinese descent died of SIDS far less often than did Australian babies of European descent" (p. 7). Looking further, Beal realized that the European and American infants were stomach sleepers while the Chinese babies slept on their backs.
After Beal published her findings, Dutch scientists in the Netherlands began recommending back-sleeping. In just one year, SIDS was reduced in Holland by 40 percent (Berger, 2012).
In 1994 a "Back to Sleep" campaign was in place in several nations, notifying parents about the dangers of putting infants to sleep on their stomachs (Berger, 2012). Because of this, the number of SIDS deaths were reduced all over the world. The campaign was so successful that physical therapists began recommending that babies partake in "tummy time" during the day to help babies with muscle development.SIDS is still a risk today and can sometimes be blamed on low birth weight, cigarette smoking in the household, bed-sharing and soft blankets or pillows. Berger (2012) states, "Most SIDS victims experienced several risks: Virtually never do babies with none of these risks die from SIDS."
SIDS is an important topic to me because it's a terrible thing that infants are losing their lives to an often preventable cause. Knowing what I do about SIDS I want to help educate caregivers about the importance of putting babies to sleep on their backs, with minimal blankets, pillows or toys. Knowing this impacts my future work because I want to be an advocate for young children, doing everything I can to help keep children safe.
Reference
Berger K. S. (2012). The developing person through childhood (6th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishing
Hello Laura,
ReplyDeleteGreat post... I chose SIDS also. There are many parents out there who consider SIDS to be a nightmare because they are worried that this will happen to there babies. There are many things parents can do to keep this from happening to their babies. The most important thing is placing their babies on their backs instead of their stomachs or sides. Also, woman should not smoke while pregnant. When babies are born to women who smoke, they are more than likely to die of SIDS than babies who are born to nonsmokers.
I too chose to do my blog research on SIDs, because of a sids death of a family friend and as a way to honor them I became a sids trainer and went into child cares around my area and trained staff on how to reduce the risk of sids in childcare. I hadn't ever thought of sids on a global perspective until reading in our course materials. It was an eye opening moment for sure!
ReplyDeleteYour post was very informative and made a lot of sense. I am very relieved to lnow that the number of SIDS cases have decreased dramatically over the years. I remember being scared to death about putting my chidren on their stomachs to sleep. They both naturally wanted to sleep in that position. I noticed this immediatly and bought a side positioner for them to sleep on until they built up more strength. I passed my observations on to friends who were pregnant and those who had just given birth. Great post!
ReplyDeleteLaura,
ReplyDeleteI recall that time when SIDs was so rampant. In one way I can understand after have two sons, how easy it would be for a baby to turn the wrong way while sleeping. Amazing is how many deaths occurred before this understanding was developed. Then to have such a simple technique as placing the child on their back instead of on the stomach would create such a drop in the death toll. This was a very interesting read.