SIDS and Kids

Thank you for your comments. SIDS and Kids are always interested in how people perceive us as an organisation and I am glad to be able to answer questions about what SIDS and Kids do and why we need to raise funds as stated ‘to help save the lives of babies and children through education campaigns and important research’.

SIDS and Kids was initially founded to support families who had experienced the death of a baby from SIDS, to raise funds for research, to fund for resources to be developed and be distributed to parents and those who care for their children and to advocate for changes in emergency response and health professionals policy and practice. The evidence-based Safe Sleeping health promotion program introduced by SIDS and Kids Australia has been instrumental in reducing the number of babies dying from SIDS and maintaining the promotion of safe sleeping practices. Research has given us evidence to understand the risk factors such as sleeping baby on the tummy or side however we still do not know the actual cause why some babies die in this position and some do not.

What we do know is that since the inception of the health promotion program, the number of babies dying from SIDS has reduced by 80% in Australia. SIDS still remains the main cause of death of infants in the post neonatal period. Hence, the Safe Sleeping campaign needs to be maintained and every new parent each year deserves to be informed of the recommendations to reduce the risk of SIDS and sleeping accidents.

Not only has $16 million been invested in research to date, research is further needed into perinatal deaths. In 2009 there were 3008 perinatal deaths which included 2341 stillbirths. Many of these deaths remained unexplained.

In Australia each year over 3,500 families experience the sudden and unexpected death of a baby or child, either through stillbirth or during the first month of life, from sudden unexpected death in infancy (SIDS or fatal sleeping accidents), SUDC (sudden unexpected death in childhood) or accident. SIDS and Kids provide professional bereavement services for all members of the family and their community. SIDS and Kids relies almost totally on the support of the community to fund our services to support families, to provide educational resources on safe sleeping and bereavement to parents, health professionals and the community.

If you would like further evidence-based information please contact us or visit our website www.sidsandkids.org and we will provide you with information that you need.