Sudden infant death syndrome: the expectations of parents

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to define the outlook of parents' associations of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Since these groups appear to be the principal recipients of a multifactorial dilemma, their expectations drive not only support teams but also research through fund-raising activities and programming conferences. These points may be summed up as: (1) characterizing the syndrome and generating information useful for decreasing the phenomenon; (2) anticipating parental responses and managing critical incident stresses; (3) helping researchers to describe the population and the scenario of a probable SIDS infant; (4) creating a preventive system; and (5) motivating potential financial supporters.