international studies reporting that

SIDS risk was lower among infants put

to bed with a pacifier and reinforced

earlier findings that sleeping on a sofa

also increases infants’ risk of SIDS.

The researchers studied all infants

from the ages of birth to one year who

had died of SIDS in Chicago, IL,

between November 1993 and April

1996. There were 260 SIDS deaths dur-

ing that time.

The SIDS rate for African American

babies is more than twice that for

white infants, according to experts.

The research is part of the Chicago

Infant Mortality Study, designed to

identify risk factors for SIDS that place

African American infants at roughly

double the SIDS risk of Caucasians.

Earlier findings of the study appear at

http://www.nichd.nih.gov/new/releases/

infant_sids.cfm.

The researchers compared informa-

tion about each SIDS case to informa-

tion about a control infant—a living

infant of comparable age, who was

from the same racial and/or ethnic

group and who had a similar birth

weight. All of the SIDS deaths were

evaluated by the Cook County Medical

Examiner’s Office; autopsies had been

conducted to rule out other causes of

death. Death scene investigators con-

ducted interviews about circumstances

surrounding the deaths. The

researchers used the NICHD defini-

tion of SIDS: “the sudden death of an

infant under one year of age, which

remains unexplained after a thorough

case investigation, including perform-

ance of a complete autopsy, examina-

tion of the death scene, and review of

the clinical history.”

Infants who died of SIDS were 5.4

times more likely to have shared a bed

with other children than were the con-

trol infants. Sleeping with the mother

alone or mother and father was associ-

ated with an increased risk of SIDS,

but this finding was not statistically

significant. The study concluded “the

risk was primarily associated with bed

212 AWHONN Lifelines Volume 7 Issue 3

Born Too Soon,Too SmallEach week in the U.S.:

• 8,985 babies are born pre-term

• 1,491 babies are born very pre-term

• 5,904 babies are born low birth weight

• 1,115 babies are born very low birth weight

• In 2000, 467,201 babies were born pre-term, representing 12 percent of

the 4,058,814 births in the U.S.

• Between 1990 and 2000, the rate of infants born pre-term in the U.S.

increased more than 9 percent

• The rate of pre-term birth in the U.S. is highest for African Americans

(17.4 percent), followed by Native Americans (12.6 percent), Whites

(10.6 percent) and Asians (10.2 percent)

• The rate of pre-term birth in the U.S. among Hispanics is 11.4 percent.

People who are Hispanic may be of any race

• In the U.S., infants born to mothers less than age 20 or over 35 years are

more likely to be pre-term than infants born to mothers aged 20 to 35

• Some risk factors for pre-term birth and low birth weight include previ-

ous pre-term and/or low–birth-weight birth, multiple birth, smoking,

unplanned pregnancy, infections and poor nutrition

Prematurity Then & Now

0%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

12%

14%

Pre-term Low Birth Weight

1990

2000

Healthy People 2010 Goal

Sources: U.S. Center for Health Statistics, March of Dimes' Prematurity Campaign