Friday 28 June 2013

Fabulous Friday - A special Red Nose Day edition



Happy Fabulous Friday all. I’m taking a different approach today and using today’s post to highlight a fabulous cause. Today is National Red Nose Day which raises money for research into Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Sadly, parents still have to suffer through the unexpected loss of a child so I think it’s a worthy cause.

In Australia alone, 3,500 families will suffer the unexpected loss of a child every year. This can be through stillbirth, SIDS, sleeping accidents or unexpected death. The main problem with these types of death is there is often no known cause which leaves grieving parents with no answers. I know how hard it was to accept my miscarriage with no answers as to why. I can only imagine the intolerable heart ache loosing your child in such an unexpected way would have on a parent.

Sadly, I know more than a handful of women who have suffered stillbirths and SIDS. The oldest person I know is my Grandmother, and 55 years on, she still holds an enormous amount of pain, grief and guilt about it. It is clearly one of those things that haunts you for the rest of your life. I would like to think my Grandmother would feel differently about it now if she had of had the support back then that is available for parents today.

Despite the medical advances of our world, there is still little known about what causes stillbirth. Research is vital to find the reason this happens in an effort to stop it. However, thanks to the research that has been done on SIDS, the incidence of it has dropped by 80%. Just a few simple things such as sleeping your baby on its back, keeping the baby away from smoke, and sleeping them in their own space have made a significant difference. You can check out other tips about safe sleeping here.   

I must admit that my two greatest fears are something happening to Sticky before she’s born and something happening to her afterwards. Babies are such fragile little beings and as a parent you do everything possible to ensure they’re safe. I know I can’t control what happens to her before she’s born, but I can exert a level of control on what happens to her afterwards. And some of those decisions will be tough. My father is a smoker so the rule will be there is no smoking when he is around the baby. I will not risk anything happening to my baby so I’m not afraid to say if you smoke, you don’t see the baby. End of story. I’d like to think that having his first grandchild would give him enough motivation to quit but that’s a different story.


All new parents worry about something happening to their previous baby so it doesn’t matter if we have suffered loss first hand, we have suffered the anxiety of it. As parents it’s something that unites and bonds us. As mothers and fathers, we can empathise with those parents who do suffer it first hand and try our best to support them. So I urge you to do all you can in response to this issue. Whether it’s just reading about it to educate yourself, educating others, donating money, or talking to someone you know who has experienced it and telling them you’re thinking of them. Any gesture, no matter how small, has the potential to save a life and you just never know how special that one life may be!

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