The Role of the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths

Abstract

This precious new being soon became the centre of my day. Like every new mother I was fascinated watching him grow stronger and more responsive. Soon he became such a personality that it was hard to imagine what life was like before he came along. He was our great delight. Then suddenly our whole world was shattered. I put him to bed one night not unduly worried by the little snuffle he had developed that day. It was not bothering him and he was his usual perky self. He was sleeping happily when we looked in to see him before going to bed ourselves. When we were to get him up in the morning his face was blue and he showed no sign of life. Although we hoped against hope as we rushed him to the doctor, he could only confirm that M was dead. He was just 13 months old.

We made exhaustive enquiries as to why a seemingly healthy baby should die so suddenly — so without warning. We learnt that what we had faced that morning is faced by five or six families every day in Britain; that unexpected deaths in infancy are the commonest kind of death in babies aged between 1 week and 2 years, though in the majority of cases the babies are aged between 1 and 6 months; and that after the age of 1 week, there are now more babies dying unexpectedly at home in the community than die in hospital.