Sudden Death in Infants Is Linked to Drinking

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ASHINGTON, Dec. 3 — American Indian mothers who drank alcohol while pregnant increased the risk their babies would die of sudden infant death syndrome, but that risk declined when the mothers were visited by public health nurses, a study has found.

A National Institutes of Health study, published in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association, evaluated data from infants who died of the syndrome, or SIDS, in the Indian Health Service region covering North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Iowa.

Indians in that area had the highest rate of the syndrome in the health service's 12 regions, at 3.5 deaths for every 1,000 live births from 1996 to 1998.

Researchers found that a mother's alcohol use, even before she knows she is pregnant, may increase the risk of her child dying of the syndrome. But the risk of SIDS fell 80 percent in homes where a public health nurse visited, compared with homes that did not have visits.

Researchers say the findings suggest that strengthening public health programs and working to reduce alcohol use among women of childbearing age on Indian reservations could cut SIDS deaths.

The Indian Health Service has run SIDS information campaigns for at least 10 years and health workers try to visit each pregnant woman at least once on Standing Rock.

"It's pretty rare for someone to go through a pregnancy without a visit," said Dan Dailey, community health director on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, on the North Dakota-South Dakota border.

Over all, the risk of SIDS among Indians is 1.5 deaths per 1,000 live births, more than double the rate of 0.7 deaths for every 1,000 live births among whites.

Indian babies had six times the risk of dying from SIDS if their mothers drank alcohol in the three months before and the three months after conception, the study found. And Indian babies had eight times the risk of dying from the syndrome if their mothers drank more than five drinks at one sitting during the first trimester of pregnancy, researchers said.

Experts do not know what causes SIDS, which kills about 3,000 infants a year, although theories include brain stem defects and heat stress.