SIDS rates drop

A report in the British Medical Journal has announced that rates of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome have fallen to nearly a tenth of what they were in the late 1980s.

This is a tribute to the epidemiologists who identified causes of the condition, and to campaigns such as “Back to Sleep” that successfully changed parental behaviour. However, a consequence of the increasing rarity of the condition is that people have become less aware of its risk factors.

A survey of mothers in Bristol found only half knew that the baby’s sleeping position was important – on their back.