Postnatal mothers' awareness of sudden infant death syndrome

Abstract

This study aimed at assessing postnatal mothers' awareness of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), and their knowledge on the reduction of its associated risks. The objectives of this study were to assess mothers' awareness of the existence of SIDS, to identify their educational sources, and to gain insight into mothers' knowledge on safe infant practices leading to the reduction of SIDS. To accomplish these objectives, a self-designed self-administered questionnaire was used. Fifty-three postnatal mothers attending the Well-Baby clinics were recruited by purposeful convenience sampling. All participants consented to participate, thus obtaining a 100% response rate. The data was systematically analysed using simple-descriptive statistics and content analysis. The findings revealed that the majority of mothers were aware of the term SIDS, with midwives and parent-craft classes as the most identified source of information. Results further identified that almost all mothers failed to explain the cause of SIDS. Mothers also lacked knowledge on safe sleeping practices in particular when avoiding prone sleeping, sleeping the infant on soft surfaces, tucking in the bedding and practising the feet-to-foot position. It may be concluded that even though postnatal mothers showed a high level of SIDS awareness, mothers are lacking knowledge on safe sleeping as recommended by international guidelines. This may suggest that some infants are being exposed to SIDS risk factors, which may be reduced with further parental education. The main recommendations included further SIDS education through antenatal visits and clinics, parent-craft classes, and public media; to replicate this study using a larger sample with a qualitative method of data collection, and to investigate SIDS awareness and knowledge among fathers, care givers, midwives and other healthcare professionals.