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Marital status and births after losing a baby from sudden infant death

  • Preventive Pediatrics And Epidemiology
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Abstract

To describe the change in marital status and subsequent live births of mothers who have lost a baby from sudden infant death (SID or cot death), a postal questionnaire was sent to European mothers who had been interviewed approximately 3.7 years (range 2.2–5.2 years) previously as part of a nationwide case-control study. Mothers of 105 (60.3%) cases and 828 (76.9%) controls replied. Changes in marital status between the time of interview and the time of the postal questionnaire did not differ between mothers of cases and that of controls when adjusted for marital status at the time of death/nominated date for controls. Cases were more likely to have further children than controls (P<0.001) and had them sooner after the death than after the nominated date for control babies (P<0.001). Case mothers were more likely than controls to have a second child after the death/nominated date, however, the interval between the first and second child after the death/nominated date was the same as that for controls.

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Abbreviations

CI :

confidence interval

SID :

sudden infant death

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Mitchell, E.A., Scragg, L. & Clements, M. Marital status and births after losing a baby from sudden infant death. Eur J Pediatr 155, 712–716 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01957159

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01957159

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