Abstract
Reducing the risk of Sudden and Unexpected Death in Infancy (SUDI) is a priority for infant health care services across the globe. Medical knowledge of risk factors for SUDI are well understood and have been part of public health messaging in the UK since the 1990s. These include the ‘back to sleep’ campaign that focused on newborn sleep position, not over wrapping the infant and to avoid passive smoke. Whilst progress has been made in reducing SUDI deaths worldwide, there are some infants who remain at high risk. This article adopts a sociomaterial lens to address the potential for material-based interventions to support messages to be tailored in culturally appropriate ways that do not negate parenting knowledge and practices. We focus on the proliferation of the ‘baby box’ as an example of material appropriation and consider the risks and the potentials for this object as a participant in parenting practices.
Highlights
Loss of a baby at any time is a devastating tragedy for the family and for all the professionals involved
The majority of Sudden and Unexpected Death in Infancy (SUDI) deaths cannot be fully explained despite investigation and include what are described as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) (Blair et al, 2009)
SUDI deaths are disproportionate in families from the poorest backgrounds (Garstang et al, 2016), whilst young families are at risk (Office for National Statistics, 2018) and there are a series of high-risk factors well known amongst health and social care professionals (Lullaby Trust, 2019; Pease et al, 2020)
Summary
Loss of a baby at any time is a devastating tragedy for the family and for all the professionals involved. In this article we argue that interventions aimed at preventing SUDI, or that are promoted as assuring safe sleep must be understood in sociomaterial relation- not to do so risks material appropriation, whilst not directly addressing infant health and mortality.
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