SIDS - Sudden Infant Death Syndrome

For this week's blog, we were asked to look into some of the different health problems facing infants. I chose SIDS to take a closer look at. When I was 10, my cousin's daughter passed away at her daycare from SIDS. Laynie was a sweet 5 month old about to be 6 months, around the age that they say you don't have to be worried anymore about SIDS. She had been dropped off at daycare that morning by her momma and was in fine spirits. The daycare put her down for her nap and after they thought she had been sleeping too long, someone went to wake her to find that she wasn't breathing.

This tragedy that my family endured happens too often, but thankfully has started to decrease drastically in the United States. In part, we have Dr. Susan Beal to thank for that as her research showed that tummy-sleeping babies are at more risk for SIDS. After her research became public, doctors started recommending that babies sleep on their backs (Berger, 155). "In 1984, SIDS killed 5,245 babies in the United States” (Berger, 155). In 1994, a campaign to promote babies sleeping on their backs being the best position, helped cut the number of deaths down drastically.  In 2017 there were approximately 1,400 SIDS deaths in the United States (CDC).  It's unfortunate that while we have an idea of some things that seem to cause SIDS, but there are many factors that Dr. Beal, along with other researchers, believe could heighten the risk of SIDS. Those risks being: "low birthweight, winter, being male, exposure to cigarettes, soft blankets or pillows, bed-sharing, and physical abnormalities (in the brainstem, heart, mitochondria, microbiome)" (Berger, 155).

In other parts of the world, its seen that developing countries are the ones hit hardest by SIDS. Africa seems to be the continent with the most SIDS deaths around 55 per 1,000 live births. However, the country with the most deaths is Afghanistan with a staggering 112.8 deaths per 1,000 live births.

Resources:

Data and Statistics - SIDS and SUID-CDC. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/sids/data.htm

Berger, K. S. (2018). The developing
person through childhood (8th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.

I, unfortunately, haven't had the amazing privilege of carrying a child and giving birth. I want more than anything to be a mom and have one of my own to love and raise, but having a spouse and family hasn't been written into my life plan yet. Hopefully it's soon to come. 

Until that day comes, I called my mom to chat with her about her experience when I was born nearly 33 years ago. She recalled checking into the hospital at 11:55 pm on October 20, 1986. My amazing grandma had driven her from the small town of Halliday where they (we) lived to Bismarck, about 120 miles. Pardon the remainder of my story, while I am going to be 100% transparent. My dad wasn't there with my mom when I was born. You see, October 20th was his anniversary. He'd started a relationship with my mom before she was aware of his being married. She did meet him on the highway on the way to Bismarck so he did know she was in labor, but he couldn't be there. 

She is allergic to Novocain so after calling the pharmacy, the doctor finally gave her Lidocaine for the pain. She clearly remembers my grandma there holding her hand though it, and squeezing my moms hand every time she cussed because the nuns would glare at her. I was born in a Catholic hospital! The doctor broke her water around 8:15 am and I was here at 11:55 am on October 21, 1986. I was depressed and taken to the NICU and was jaundiced so was placed under the bili lights.  I got to go home about a week later and was back in on Halloween because I quit breathing. We spent the night in the ER and I was released the next morning. 

I've never heard any stories of anyone having a baby in another country, so I had nothing to go on. So I needed to do a little research. My last name is Fjelstad (pronounced Felsted), so I immediately decided that I wanted to look into the country where my heritage originates, Norway. 

I found out a lot of fun information about having babies in Norway, and decided I may move there before I have a child! Appointments are at hospitals with doctors, but all doctors recommend meeting and working with a midwife. The moms give birth at the hospital but there are two different areas. If the birth seems to be going well, they'll be placed in an area with a small amount of medical equipment. If there are any medical issues arising during delivery they'll go to the regular medical ward. Once the baby is born, mother and child stay in the hospital around 3 days on a floor that resembles a hotel and each bathroom has a changing table. The family of the mother and baby are allowed to stay but are charged to stay.  An opinion I read stated that pregnancy in Norway is treated more like a normal part of life rather than a medical diagnosis.  

Aside from those great reasons, I found out that the government will pay the family around $4500 USD once the baby is born, and a monthly allowance as well which I read was around $120 USD until the child turns 18. The national healthcare also pays for all prenatal care. Wow! It really blows my mind how different having a child is around the world.