I have been trying to think how I could best support Safer Sleep Week
As a Mummy who has lost a baby to SIDS
This is not an easy week to be on social media
It makes me so cross
Because sometimes you can follow all the rules for safer sleep
And your baby will still die
I have seen families torn apart by SIDS
I am one of them
And the most awful thing about is that there is no cause of death
No suffocation
No strangulation
No illness or infection
No overheating
No accidental death
When no cause of death can be found
When you have been questioned
Your husband has been questioned
Your older children checked
Your house examined
Only then when the coroner is satisfied
That there is no evidence of any of the above
Will the death be recorded as a sudden infant death
So yes please please do make sure your baby is sleeping as safely as can be
Do follow the guidelines provided by The Lullaby Trust
But do not think that this guarantees that everything will be okay
It does not
Do not think that once your baby reaches the magic milestone of 6 months old
It means that they will live forever
It does not
Do not think that once your baby is rolling and crawling they will be safe
It is sadly not always the case
Ask Robert
Ask Nicola
Ask Camilla
We do not know why babies and young children die suddenly and unexpectedly
Why some toddlers fall asleep and never wake up
The Lullaby Trust need our help to try and find out why
But we may never know
We may never ever know
And it is a hard fact to live with
But it is a truth
That we all need to be aware of
This week
#SaferSleepWeek
And every week
Read more about SIDS and Me here
Thanks for sharing this, it is so frustrating not to know, not to have answers, much love x
My baby ben died suddenly and inexpectedly thirty years ago this January 22. My first grandchild is just four weeks old and I worry about him, when he is asleep I have to keep watching him; I can’t be with him on my own. I try hard not to catastrophise and to keep things in proportion but it’s very difficult, I don’t want to pass my anxieties to my
daughter, but it’s not easy hiding my feelings from her. She’s doing her best to keep her baby safe but, as Matilda’s mum says, the hard truth is that nothing guarantees a baby’s safety completely.