October is Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) Awareness Month.
As a result, parents, caregivers, and medical professionals are raising awareness about SIDS and teaching preventative measures.
Grace Weaver is an educational instructor at A New Life Pregnancy Center in Mamou.
She said the number of babies losing their lives to SIDS today has decreased significantly, but this downward trend took time.
"In 1990 it was 130 deaths per 100-thousand live births," Weaver said. "In 2013, they had it down to 39 deaths per hundred-thousand births and right now 2015 has the latest statistics I could find it was 37-hundred babies that died from SIDS."
According to the CDC, SIDS is a term used to describe the sudden death of a baby or person younger than one that doesn't have a known cause even after investigation.
Weaver said she knows some mothers who have lost their children and the experience is devastating.
"We had a mother here who lost her child to SIDS," Weaver said. "They did an investigation because they always do a SIDS investigation and it was found that the baby suffocated."
Allen Malbrew is a father of six. He said he and his wife never slept in the same bed as their children, even when they were babies.
"They all slept in their own bed," Malbrew said. "We never raised them to sleep with us...They had their own room and we let them sleep together."
Weaver said babies should sleep in their own bassinets or beds, by themselves, laying on their back and without anything else (e.g. no blankets, pillows, toys, etc.)
Anyone interested in resources for their baby or further education on SIDS is encouraged to visit Home - New Life Pregnancy Center.
