Indigenous infant deaths In Qld: call for education campaign -
Perinatal Society of Australia and New Zealand, 5th Annual Congress, Canberra
The deaths of four Aboriginal infants in Townsville last year as a result of accidental suffocation have sparked calls for an urgent education campaign amongst indigenous communities in Queensland.
The results of a study into the deaths - by Townsville General Hospital and Kirwan Hospital for Women in Townsville - are being presented today at the Perinatal Society of Australia and New Zealand (PSANZ) 5th Annual Congress in Canberra.
In the study Infant Health Care workers and a pathologist reported a case-series of five consecutive sleep accidents that occurred between January and December 2000.
The infants were aged from eight days to 10 months, four were less than four months old, and four were from local indigenous communities.
It was found that four of the children who died had been sleeping on soft foam mattresses as well as co-sleeping with siblings or parents.
The pathologist concluded that the cause of death in all cases was accidental suffocation, rather than Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
The study found in three cases the infants were co-sleeping with both parents or the mother and were found dead under the covers in a face down position or located under the mother's arm. The fourth indigenous infant died after becoming accidentally wedged between a thick foam mattress placed on the floor and a nearby sofa..
"The incidence of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDs) has dropped dramatically in Australia since the mid-90s with the Back to Sleep campaign," study author Dr Grant McBride said.
"Unfortunately some cases of SIDs are actually related to unsafe sleep practices including co-sleeping, use of inappropriate soft pillows, mattresses and bedding material and unsafe beds or cots. These deaths are preventable," he said.
Dr McBride, specialist pathologist and former Director of Pathology, Townsville General Hospital, said that the "Safe to Sleep" campaign needed to reach and be understood by all parents or carers of infants where any infants was put to sleep.
He said the study also highlighted the urgency for such a campaign to involve and be adapted for the indigenous communities in Queensland and across Australia.