The number of babies dying from cot death and infant mortality have fallen to their lowest ever, a new report reveals.
The Office for National Statistics has just released its latest figures on infant mortality rates in England and Wales and there’s a noticeable drop in the number of babies affected. The cot death rates in the year 2000 fell by a further 13 per cent, adding to the downward spiral seen over the past few years.
Experts say this trend has been helped by the 10-year cot death campaign promoting the need for babies to sleep on their backs. A spokesperson for the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths (FSID) welcomed news of the fall in deaths and said the charity was ‘celebrating the success’ of their campaign. However, she added: “A number of babies still die every week and the important preventative messages still need to get to mothers.”
FSID urges parents to always put babies to sleep on their backs, not smoke during pregnancy or near babies, avoid letting infants get too hot or too cold and always make sure the head is uncovered when asleep.
For those that were affected by cot death, babies with very low birth weights of less than 2kg were found to be at greatest risk. Mothers with three or more children were 30 per cent more likely to lose a subsequent baby than those with a first child, and young single mums also seemed to have higher risks of losing their babies.
24 August 2001
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