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The rates of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome — known asSIDS— are rising in the United States, even as overall infant mortality is down.
Cases of SIDS rose 12% between 2020 and 2022, according to a new study published in theJournal of the American Medical Association, viaThe New York Times.
SIDS is generally defined as unexplained death of an otherwise healthy infant during the first year of life, according to theMayo Cllnic. It’s also known as “crib death”, as the deaths generally occur while the children are sleeping.
The study’s results are “pretty alarming,” study author Dr. Elizabeth Wolf, an associate professor of pediatrics with Children’s Hospital of Richmond at Virginia Commonwealth University, told theNYT.
“The death of an infant from SIDS or SUID [Sudden Unexpected Infant Death] is unbelievably horrific. And we as a public health community need to do everything we can to try and reduce the risk factors as much as possible,” Wolf said.
Given the time period of the increase — the peak of theCovidpandemic — the respiratory disease was seen as one potential cause for the rise in SIDS. Dr. Michael Goodstein,director of newborn services for WellSpan Health and a member of an American Academy of Pediatrics task force on SUID told theNYT, “It’s my prayer that this is just a blip that’s really tightly tied to the pandemic, and that it’ll come back down.”
Stock image of a crib covered in blankets and pillows.Getty
A2021 analysis of imageson Instagram showed that less than 8% were consistent withAmerican Academy of Pediatricsguidelines forsafe sleeping environmentsfor infants. These guidelines mandate that infants sleep on their back on a firm, flat mattress in their own space (no co-sleeping), without any blankets, pillows, stuffed animals andother soft items.
The study also said that SIDS rates remain higher for Black, Native American and Pacific Islander babies than for White and Asian infants; specifically, the risk of SIDS forBlack infantsis 10 times higher than that for Asian infants, and three times higher than White infants.
One factor behind the figures, theOffice of Minority Healthsays, is that Native American mothers were “almost three times more likely to receive late or no prenatal care than non-Hispanic white mothers." For Black Americans,OMHcited low birthweight and maternal complications of pregnancy as extenuating circumstances. And the latestOMHdata for native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander mothers showed they were “4.6 times more likely to receive late or no prenatal care as compared to non-Hispanic white mothers.”
“An infant dying from SUID is a horrific tragedy and causes incomprehensible trauma to the family,” Wolf said in the statement. She pointed towards parental assistance — like expanded healthcare, parental leave, breastfeeding support and more — that could help lower the numbers.
“Although not all SUID is preventable, there are some ways to reduce an infant’s risk.”
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source: people.com
