Report on cot deaths insult, cold comfort’

Press, 15 January 1986, Page 5

Report on cot deaths insult, cold comfort’

The National Cot Death Steering Committee’s recommendations offer cold comfort for pakeha parents and insult Maori and other Polynesian parents of cot death babies, said the New Zealand Values Party spokeswoman for Health, Ms Beryl Allison. On Monday, the committee released a 30-page report on cot deaths emphasising the need for district committees and education programmes, designed primarily for populations identified as at high risk to neonatal deaths. Ms Allison said the focus of the recommendations appeared to be more “jobs for the boys” on the one hand, and the insensitive suggestion that Maori and other Polynesian parents, in particular, needed to be educated for parenthood. The report did not appear to contain much in the way of new information about sudden infant death syndrome, she said. “How will the recommended education of school children reduce the mortal-

ity rate, when the cause of the deaths remains a mystery?” she asked.

Ms Allison said the committee had ignored the fact that members of high-risk groups were also those who suffer the highest levels of unemployment and consequently experience the lowest standard of living in a society. “It seems the height of insensitivity for the committee members to be suggesting to women, struggling to care for their families on very low incomes and in poor living conditions, that they need to be educated in parenthood. “These so-called high-risk groups know very well that what they need is an improved standard of living and a health care system that is more responsive to their needs.”

Ms Allison said the recommendations entailed the extension of an unresponsive public health service to undertake a role which was already part of the responsibilities of district medical health officers.