Managing Worry

When a woman becomes a mother, she becomes a worrier. It is one thing to take care of a child, it is another to worry over that little person.

Fate. Bad luck. The one irrational event.

I am going to mention SIDS now. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, also known as cot death and crib death, is the sudden death of an apparently healthy baby under the age of 12 months. It happens to less than one in one thousand babies, usually between the ages of 2 and 4 months. It happens. The fact that it does keeps parents up at night, and makes them accidentally wake babies while they check for breathing.

The existence of SIDS is an absolutely heart-breaking terror.

It is also a worry new mothers need to learn how to manage.

After SIDS, you have to worry about the little one coming into contact with germs, about learning to walk and the associated bumps and bruises, about teen drinking, motorcycles and everything else until you die.

So, manage this worry and learn how to manage all the others too.

Follow the Back to Sleep Campaign. Put the little one on his or her back to sleep, don’t use blankets, don’t let the baby get overheated and provide a SMOKE FREE home.

There is nothing else you can do. Researchers are looking for the causes of SIDS and it does look like they are making some headway, reports the Irish Independent. The article refers to a study conducted at the University of Manchester.

• The study looked at the DNA of 25 babies who were victims of SIDS and compared it to the genetic makeup of healthy babies.

• The study undertaken by researchers at the University of Manchester, indicates that babies with abnormalities in the genes responsible for lung development and immune responses were three times more likely to die suddenly than babies who didn’t.

• But even a three-fold increased risk of SIDS over the average is still a tiny risk – the gene is unlikely to be the sole factor says National SIDS researcher Cliona McGarvey.