Newborn deaths and SIDS in Mauritius

(I haven’t forgotten about the two remaining essays on the racial riots - I’m still working on them, they’re taking even more time than expected, and I have less time nowadays since I’ve just given birth).

Edit: I’m told that l’express did publish this piece, but I wasn’t told so I thought they’d passed on it! I can’t find a link but in any case here it is in full:

Two newborns have died in Mauritius within ten days. It’s not the first time that the island has heard of such cases in the news; they are sparse but recurrent events every year, with the deaths generally described as being the result of ‘asphyxiation’ or the ‘inhalation of stomach contents’. In the discussions and reports that follow these deaths, none to my knowledge mention SIDS.

SIDS, or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, is the sudden, unexpected and unexplained death of an apparently healthy baby. Most deaths happen during the first 6 months of a baby’s life, and infants who are born prematurely and with a low birthweight are at greater risk. SIDS awareness campaigns in the US and in Europe have helped halve the risk of infant deaths since the 1990s.

SIDS prevention hinges on creating a safe sleeping environment for babies, by for instance:

·      always placing babies on their backs to sleep

·      placing babies on firm, flat bedding unencumbered by sheets, pillows, bumper pads or other paraphernalia

·      placing the baby in a separate crib or bassinet to sleep in the parent’s bedroom (but not in the parent’s bed)

·      not covering a baby’s head

Parents can reduce the risk of SIDS by not smoking while pregnant or after the baby is born and by breastfeeding their child.

A wealth of material on SIDS is available online, and yet when I hear of SIDS in Mauritius it’s always in reference to another acronym - ‘Small Island Developing State’. The government, to my knowledge, has never created a SIDS awareness campaign or promoted correct sleeping practices. This is particularly abhorrent given the fact that about 17% of Mauritian babies are born underweight (the statistics behind this figure date back to 2015; the lack of updated information is yet another failing of the Ministry of Health).

More troubling still is the fact that some doctors interviewed in news reports following infant deaths promote arcane sleeping practices that are now considered dangerous, such as placing babies to sleep on their stomachs.

We do not know how many Mauritian babies die of SIDS because there are no statistics provided to that effect: all we know is that the infant mortality rate in Mauritius is a staggering 12.6 per 1000 births, which puts us on near-equal footing with countries like Uzbekistan, West Bank and the Gaza strip, and Jordan. It is shocking, to me, that we don’t have such information when a considerable number of Mauritian babies are at risk, and I am incensed that information from three-decade-old SIDS campaigns have still not made their way to our island.

Ideally of course I’d have liked this piece to be in French and Kreol, but that isn’t possible right now. But if anyone in Mauritius is reading this, I’d appreciate it if you talked to people you know about SIDS and safe sleeping practices.