Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Summary

* Pre - birth conference was held to establish the issues surrounding the mother, her pregnancy and her parenting skills. Mother did not attend. The pre – birth conference attended by the CDAT key worker, safeguarding midwife, health visitor, GP, social worker. The pre – birth conference took place as mum was concealing her pregnancy and that she was heavily

          SIDS, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, a leading cause of death in infants under the age of one, has left medical experts unable to clearly define sudden infant death syndrome. After thirty years of research, the medical field has not discovered definite causes for SIDS. Medical experts have suggested many theories that have been studied and debated.

Kristen Swanson obtained her earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing from University of Rhode Island in 1975; her masters in adult health and illness from the University of Pennsylvania in 1978; and her PhD in psycho-social nursing from the University of Colorado. Through her education, Swanson was an educator at the University of Washington, where she completed her post-doctoral studies. She had research interest in miscarriage and pregnancy loss. She also taught at Trenton State College, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and University of Colorado School of Nursing.

For any mother the birth of a newborn child can be a challenging experience. As nurses it is part of our job to ensure their experience is positive. We can help do this by providing the information they will need to affective care for their newborn. This information includes topics such as, breastfeeding, jaundice, when to call your doctor and even how to put your baby to sleep. When the parents have an understanding of these topics before discharge it can largely reduce their natural anxiety accompanied with the transition to parenthood. Health teaching for new parents is seen as such an important aspect of care on post-partum floors it is actually a necessary component that needs to be covered before the hospital can discharge the

Childbirth is one of the greatest privileges on the earth anyone could have and we, as women, should feel proud to be major contributors for it. Thus, a mother has to play a key role in aiding the healthcare workers to mitigate the health crisis associated with childbirth by performing her duties faithfully. One such associated health crisis is “Premature (preterm) birth” which occurs when the baby is born too early, before 37 weeks of gestational period (CDC, 2015). The rate of preterm birth ranges from 5% to 18% of babies born across 184 countries (WHO, 2015).

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome remains the leading cause of post-neonatal mortality (under the age of one) in developed countries. The causes of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome have been puzzling and research is being conducted to solve this catastrophic problem. Having a child under the age of one makes me very concerned, along with any other parent(s), that the possibility of SIDS could affect any infant at anytime, SIDS does not discriminate. I am seeking to find the possible causes to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome so in the future deaths could be avoided.

For hundred of years, women have wrestled with their womanhood, bodies, and what it means to be a woman in our society. Being a woman comes with a wonderful and empowering responsibility--giving birth. What sets us aside from other countries is that the process and expectations of giving birth has changed in our society; coming from midwifery, as it has always been since the early times, to hospitals where it is now expected to give birth at. Midwifery was a common practice in delivering babies in

In 1962, C. Henry Kempe published an article discussing symptoms of shaken baby syndrome it was more towards the symptoms from abuse and not from accidents. Some of the physical indicators he discussed were poor skin hygiene, malnutrition and fractures. Depending on the age of the child and if the abuse has been ongoing there could be older fractures. John Caffey, a pediatric radiologist, following up on Kempe’s work in 1972 and 1974, suggested that babies could be seriously injured without outward signs of trauma to the body. “He described a constellation of clinical findings that were used to coin the term ‘whiplash shaken baby syndrome.’ Caffey’s observations…noted common injuries including retinal hemorrhages, subdural and/or subarachnoid hemorrhages, and minimal or absent signs of external cranial trauma.” More recently, the syndrome has been described as abusive head trauma resulting from shaking the baby, with or without impact (Isser & Schwartz, 2006). Shaken baby syndrome is a serious brain injury to a child. When a child is shaken repeatedly it causes tears in the brain tissue, blood vessels, and nerves. The child’s brain collides against the skull and it can cause bleeding and swelling in the brain. Up to the age of five years old a child can be a victim of shaken baby syndrome. It is most common in children who are between three and eight months old but the highest rates are in infants who are between six to eight weeks

Many women with newborns have horrible thoughts of killing there children in different ways, but most who have such thoughts do not hurt their babies. Some women fear that the worse these thoughts are, the sicker they have to be and that is not true. When they feel safe enough to talk about these thoughts and don’t feel judged, they often experience relief, even if they continue to have the thoughts. The specialists also talk about how many children with mothers facing this disease are removed from their homes. Rather than causing newborns unneeded trauma by removing them from their mothers, society should allow mothers to talk about their condition with doctors and find

SIDS and how to prevent it, are still limited. The leaders in this field are

Participants: The participants will be two hundred and fifty mother child dyads (250 moms, 250 babies). The clinical sample will be recruited from an area that is a high-risk environment for a child. Risk factors include, socioeconomic status, low educational level and chaotic living conditions. The reasoning for this is because, as mentioned previously, around 85% of children from this type of community

Centre for Maternal and Child Enquiries (CMACE) (2011) Saving mothers’ lives; reviewing maternal deaths to make motherhood safer: 2006-2008. BJOG 18(1): 1-203. London. Blackwell Synergy.

Educate them about Sudden infant death syndrome in two languages in English and Indian language (Punjabi). They were reading and extremely interested in the pamphlet, and they admitted that they were not aware of SIDS cause and prevention. They asked for more education and material on how to prevent their infant from sudden infant death syndrome. They understood very well, and they asked for an extra pamphlet to distribute in church and shared with relatives

Care provided by a nurse is not limited to physical care. Instead, a therapeutic nurse-client relationship extends beyond physical needs ensuring that a client’s psychological and emotional needs are being met as well (National Council, 2013). In developing a relationship with a newly pregnant client, it is essential to understand common responses to pregnancy. Newly pregnant clients are often in a state of shock or disbelief, and any ambivalence detected by a nurse could simply be the result of the pregnancy not yet being acknowledged as “real” by the client (Lowdermilk & Perry, 2010). This is especially likely of an unplanned pregnancy in which there are few signs and symptoms. In developing a relationship with a client, a nurse must being willing to fully give of his or her self, identifying, empathizing, and addressing specific needs, and providing truthful and unbiased answers to questions (National Council, 2013).

The couple’s first experience of having newborn babies came unexpected amidst severe warnings of a hurricane at 5:20 AM; the mother’s water had broken and the baby was being born 13 weeks early. The delivery was high risk, not only due to the premature nature of the newborns, but also because the pregnancy was multiple-birth (twins). As this is a high-stress moment for any future parent, and ones with complex situations in particular, the overall service experience should be as easy, informational, safe, and stress-free as possible.