Campaign to highlight cot deaths launched

Press, 7 April 1987, Page 8

Campaign to highlight cot deaths launched

A month-long campaign to highlight cot deaths was launched yesterday. The campaign, sponsored by the Healthcare division of 1.C.1. New Zealand, is aimed at increasing public awareness of cot deaths. A similar cam- / paign was held in April last year.

In spite of continued research in New Zealand and overseas, cot deaths remain the biggest single cause of infant death after the first week of life.

The campaign is being held just before winter because that is the worst time - for cot deaths. Seventy-four per cent of all cot deaths happen in the colder months of May to September. A spokeswoman for the

Canterbury Cot Death Society, Ms Felicity Price, said yesterday that 34 babies had died of cot death in Christchurch last year. This was a higher rate than anywhere else in New Zealand. Christchurch had an average of seven cot deaths per 1000 live births, she said. The national average for cot deaths is about four per 1000 live births.

Statistics gathered by the society showed that two-thirds of the babies that died were under four months of age and most were between one and three months old. This is younger than for the rest of the' country, said Ms Price.

Babies died mainly in

winter and spring with the highest numbers in June, she said.

"Interestingly, the deaths of young babies under five months were more frequent all year round while older babies died almost singly in winter or spring,” she said.

Statistics for the last six years showed that the pakeha cot death rates in Christchurch were three times higher than in Auckland.

Cold evenings were often cited as a cause of cot death but in Sweden and Canada where temperatures at night were very cold, the cot death rate was very low, said Ms Price.

"One of the problems here mieht be that even

when it’s cold, people don’t heat rooms at night It’s often been said that leaving a bar heater on at night is dangerous so we recommend a panel heater.

“People have got to do this — they have got to realise that to reduce the risk they have to start looking at heating babies’ rooms.”

However, cold was not the only cause of cot deaths, said Ms Price. Babies thought to be at risk include those whose mothers smoke both during pregnancy and after the birth, those with young mothers or mothers with a poor obstetric history, and those whose normal routines are disturbed by such things as long journeys.