COT DEATHS RISE - AFTER FALLING FOR YEARS
Experts are “concerned” by the findings
COT deaths are at their highest level for three years.
New data from the Office for National Statistics shows 219 children under the age of one died for unexplained reasons in England and Wales in 2016.
That works out at more than four a week, on average.
Unexplained deaths include sudden infant deaths (SIDs), also known as ‘cot deaths,’ and unascertained deaths where no medical cause is recorded by a coroner. Cot deaths are the sudden, unexpected and unexplained death of an otherwise seemingly healthy baby. While the exact cause is unknown, maternal smoking during pregnancy and postnatal exposure to tobacco smoke have been associated with higher rates. The number of unexplained infant deaths had previously been experiencing a longterm fall. The figure for 2016 is still down by 23 per cent compared to the 285 recorded in 2006.
It fell to 234 in 2012 before rising slightly to 252 in 2013, then falling again to a record low of just 195 in 2015.
The rise in 2016 included mothers in most age groups.
In particular, the number of unexplained infant deaths whose mothers were aged 20 to 24 rose from 42 in 2015 to 58 in 2016.
Francine Bates is chief executive office for The Lullaby Trust, a charity offering safer sleep advice for parents of infants.
She said: “We are deeply concerned by the increased SIDs rate in England and Wales.
“The previous downward trend in SIDs deaths has been largely attributed to increased awareness of safer sleep advice so it is essential that this remains a top priority for local authorities and all professionals working with families.
“SIDs rates are highest in the most deprived areas and we worry that pressures on local authorities’ public health budgets and the increasing number of families being pushed into poverty will lead to slower progress or even further increases in the number of deaths. “We urge local authorities to ensure there is adequate funding for health visitors and early years staff who provide crucial safer sleep advice to families with new babies.” The Lullaby Trust also offers advice to parents on how to reduce the chance of SIDs. They say that babies should always be placed to sleep on their back, and never on their front or side. They also advise that the safest place for a baby to sleep is in a separate cot in the same room as its parents for the first six months.