A study has been carried out and it has been published that children of teenage mums are five times more likely to die of
cot death than children of older mums. The study has been conducted by the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths and was conducted in Canada. It was brought to light that
smoking was a key issue in cot deaths.
The article gives statistics for the UK, with cot deaths being at a rate of 355 in 2005 and a drop to 321 in 2006. In 2006, among teenage mothers, there was 1.27 deaths for every 1,000 live babies born. However, in women aged 35 and over, the rates showed just 0.23 deaths for every 1,000 live babies born.
Joyce Epstein, Chief Executive of the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths, has been reported as saying "100 cot deaths would be prevented if no women smoked during pregnancy."
The study has been published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. It has been suggested that babies who are born early because their parents smoked were at an even higher risk than those babies who were just born prematurely. To prove this, studies of a babys' breathing response were carried out on 22 babies, half to smoking mothers, half to non-smoking mothers.
The study is now reinforcing that smoking is dangerous to a babys' health and is a link to
cot death, medically known as Sudden Infant Death (SIDS).
In recent times it was a main factor to put the baby on its back to sleep, which was proven to reduce the risk of cot death and smoking was always an issue. However, now that it has been medically and scientifically linked to babys' breathing responses Joyce Epstein is urging all medical professionals to pass this advice to those who need it.