March 20, 2013
Sudden infant death forgotten issue
A kaupapa Māori service supporting whānau affected by cot death or Sudden Unexpected Death in Infancy wants more attention paid to the problem.
Whakawhetu General Manager Kodi Hapi says with the demise of red nose day, there is no longer a high visibility public awareness or fundraising campaign around the issue.
She says a new report by the Child and Youth Mortality Review Committee shows that while the numbers of infants dying of SUDI has dropped from a high of about 200 a year in the 1980s to 60 or 70 a year now, some 60 percent of those babies are Māori.
Many of those deaths can be prevented.
“We have a big responsibility in the health sector and the social sector to support families so that they know how to protect babies and also have the resources available to them. Families need to have baby beds so that they have somewhere safe to place their babies and also smokers need to be supported to quit and to become smokefree,” she says.
Kodi Hapi says to be effective, the message about how to look after their babies need to be delivered to families in culturally appropriate ways.
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