Caring for parents who have lost an infant

Abstract

Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is the leading cause of infant deaths. When it strikes an unexpecting victim, it strikes swiftly, quietly, and cruelly. It leaves in its aftermath another victim, the family. Nurses and clergy know this best. The family is left to cope with the shock, the grief, and the guilt. It is the guilt that lingers and causes serious anguish for the family. It often leads to stress on the marital relationship of the parents and insecurity in the re maining children. Although no professionally trained person can eliminate the grief caused by an infant's death or do much to comfort the family, short of bringing their baby back, such a person can do much to help the wounded family in their grieving. In the following discussion, we will explain how a professional nurse can offer a pastoral perspective and function in assisting a grieving family. At least one of every ten thousand infants dies of SIDS every year in the United States. Perhaps the figure is much higher, because alertness to the condition varies from doctor to doctor, city to city. No discernible cause for this death has been found. An apparently healthy infant is put to bed without symptoms to indicate that something is wrong, with the exception of a possible slight cold. Sometime later, without warning, the infant is found dead. The postmortem examination reveals minor inflammation of the upper respiratory tract and some congestion of the lungs. This is not an adequate explanation for this unexpected, mysterious death that usually attacks children from two to six months of age. The incidence of SIDS is two to three per thousand live births, or one out of every three hundred babies. It seems to be constant in all communities spread around the globe.1 SIDS outranks deaths from all types of birth defects, includ ing heart disease. Over twice as many children die of SIDS as of cancer. The phenomenon is uncommon before three weeks of age and after six months of age. Typical cases almost never occur after the child is one year of age. Most studies have shown a clear-cut seasonal distribution, with preponderance dur ing the late autumn, winter, and spring.2 Occasionally, there is a temporal