Report of the Chief Medical Officer's Expert Group on the Sleeping Position of Infants and Cot Death / [chairman: Eileen D. Rubery].

  • Great Britain. Department of Health. Chief Medical Officer's Expert Group on the Sleeping Position of Infants and Cot Death
Date:
1993
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Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: Report of the Chief Medical Officer's Expert Group on the Sleeping Position of Infants and Cot Death / [chairman: Eileen D. Rubery]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    act ies iS Introduction Cot death - the sudden, unexpected, and unexplained death of an infant - is not a new phenomenon: it has been known since biblical times [“And when I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold, it was dead.....” (1 Kings 3:21. King James Version)]. It is generally accepted that cot death does not have a single cause, but is one consequence of the interplay between factors that confer vulnerabilities upon a developing infant, and various external influences. This can result in a failure of breathing and circulation, and end in death. So far, epidemiological studies have made the largest contribution to our understanding of cot death. Such studies can rarely explain the events which lead to a particular outcome; but they can yield insights from which more discerning studies - including intervention studies - can begin. Reports of epidemiological studies from several different countries have drawn renewed attention to particular risk factors in cot death. Those risk factors are laying infants to sleep on their fronts (prone), parental smoking, and inadvertent overheating. All are amenable to change. Therefore a number of programmes have been set up with the aim of influencing these factors and observing the effects. During 1991 there were preliminary reports of intervention programmes which had been conducted in Avon, England, and in New Zealand. They showed that a reduction in the proportion of infants sleeping on the front had been matched by a fall in the incidence of cot death. The Chief Medical Officer therefore established this group to examine the findings, together with evidence from other studies, and to give advice. Technical terms which are shown in italics appear in the Glossary