September E-zine

 

The Georgia SIDS Project E-Zine is an on-line educational update offered monthly by the Georgia Sudden Infant Death Information, Referral and Support Project, an affiliate of First Candle/SIDS Alliance. To comment on this issue, request additional information, refer families in need of support, make a donation or be added or removed from the list please contact us at gasids@mindspring.com or call 678-342-3360 or through Powerline at 1-800-822-2539.

This publication is made available through the generous donation of friends and supporters of our program.

 

Through the State Charitable Campaign Program state employees can select and donate to the Georgia SIDS Project. Help us support bereaved families, increase risk reduction education, make safe cribs available to low-income high-risk infants through your donations. Select Georgia SIDS Project - # 160000

 

Volume 2 - Issue Number 9, September 2006

 

1.       Georgia SIDS Project hosts our first annual  “Servin’ 4 SIDS”  Tennis Clinic and Exhibition on October 7th at the Stone Mountain tennis center. Please come and support our efforts to fund our bereavement support and risk reduction training in the community. Your presence will make a big difference!

2.       Georgia SIDS continues to offer risk reduction training on a fee scale basis. CEU’s for nurses and child care workers available.

3.       DHR Promotes Safe Sleep through a crib matching donation program

4.       October is SIDS Awareness Month                                                                                                   

5.       New ACOG study on c-section

6.       New CDC quick stats on births in or out of marriage.

7.       Office of minority health adds resources to website on promotion of breast feeding.

8.       New studies on Autism

 

1.      The Servin’ 4 SIDS Charitable Tennis Clinic and Exhibition will be held on Saturday, October 7th at the Stone Mountain Tennis Center. This Charity Fund Raiser will be the key to funding our bereavement support efforts for families in Georgia.  A flyer about the program is attached. Please consider coming for a wonderful afternoon of fun, learning, music, a great silent auction and the chance to watching great tennis. For details go to www.sidsga.org or open the attached PDF.  

 

2.      The Georgia SIDS Project has training available on a sliding fee scale. See our training options at www.sidsga.org

 

3.      Georgia’s Division of Public Health (Family Health Branch) has created a program to assist families with providing a separate and safe sleep environment for infants.  The Crib Matching Program is an initiative that is occurring throughout the nation and has assisted many families by providing education on SIDS awareness and by providing cribs.  Georgia’s Crib Matching Program will match an agency’s purchase of cribs based on the ratio of 2 cribs matched for every 5 purchased.  The "cribs" are actually what is comparable to “pack and plays”.  “Pack and plays” are considered more useful for crib matching campaigns nationally due to their mobility and durability for families with babysitters not in the home or for families that are in transition.  Public Health has approximately 700 cribs available to match with agencies.  Agencies can purchase cribs through our vendor, who has additional cribs available, or through another vendor with pack and plays that meet the specs outlined from the Play Yard. The Crib Campaign is projected to begin in late October. Contact Kim Washington @ DHR for more information. kiwashington@dhr.state.ga.us

 

4.      OCTOBER IS SIDS AWARENESS MONTH Many FIMR Programs work closely with local SIDS organizations to increase awareness of protective behaviors like placing infants on their backs to sleep. October’s observance provides additional opportunities to link up with local and national educational campaigns like the “Back to Sleep” campaign and SIDS risk reduction efforts. Visit these websites during SIDS Awareness Month. Also come support your Georgia SIDS Program . Visit www.sidsga.org

* The Association of SIDS and Infant Mortality Programs. This site lists local coordinators and provides other information related to bereavement support. http://www.asip1.org   

* The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Click on the Back to Sleep Icon for materials. Explore the NICHD site for research and other information  http://www.nichd.nih.gov    

* The National SIDS Resource Center. This website links to fact sheets. It also contains a download copy of The Death of a Child, The Grief of Parents: A lifetime Journey. http://www.sidscenter.org.

* The SIDS Network. This website is targeted primarily to parents and families. It contains stories from families who have experienced a loss, many sets of frequently asked questions, chat rooms and links to other sites. http://www.sids-network.org/

* The National SIDS Alliance/First Candle. http://www.firstcandle.org This site has research and statistics and national grief resources.

 

5.      From ACOG News Release: New Study: Cesarean Delivery Associated with Increased Risk of Maternal Death. Cesarean delivery is associated with a three-fold increased risk of postpartum maternal death when compared with vaginal delivery, according to a new study in the September issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology. Researchers emphasized that cesarean delivery is major abdominal surgery and that expectant women and physicians should carefully consider cesarean-related surgical complications and the increased risk of death when choosing the method of delivery. To read more http://www.acog.org/from_home/publications/press_releases/nr08-31-06-2.cfm

 

6.      CDC QuickStats: Percentage of Parents* Who Were Married or Cohabiting* at Birth of First Child, by Race/Ethnicity and Sex in US, 2002 Survey. According to 2002 survey data, CDC reports that among non-Hispanic whites, the birth of the first child occurred during marriage for 77% of males and 74% of females. Among Hispanics, the birth of the first child occurred during marriage for 52% of males and 54% of females, and, among non-Hispanic blacks, it occurred during marriage for 37% of males and 23% of females. To view the QuickStats graph of these findings, go to http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5536a8.htm

 

7.      The HHS Office of Minority Health is spreading the word about the benefits of breastfeeding: http://www.omhrc.gov/templates/content.aspx?ID=4493 The breastfeeding promotion webpage has information on further resources and downloadable slides (in either Adobe PDF or PowerPoint format), useful for trainings and client sessions.

 

8.      The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has launched three major clinical studies on autism at its research program in Maryland. These studies are the first products of a new, integrated focus on autism generated in response to reported increases in autism prevalence and valid opportunities for progress. Initial studies will define the characteristics of different subtypes of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) (http://www.nimh.nih.gov/healthinformation/autismmenu.cfm) and explore possible new treatments.

One study will define differences -- both biological and behavioral -- in autistic children with diverse developmental histories. Increasingly, scientists are considering the likelihood of "autisms," that is, multiple disorders that comprise autism. These studies seek to better define the subtypes within autism. Children with regressive autism appear to develop normal language and social skills but then lose these with the onset of autism before age 3. Non-regressive autism, the more common form of the disorder, begins early in life, possibly before birth, with evidence of subtle deficits throughout development. Children with these two forms of autism will be compared with those who have other developmental disorders, including various forms of developmental delay, as well as children with typical development. In addition, researchers will study a subset of the children in this study to investigate environmental factors that may trigger symptoms of autism.

In another study, NIMH researchers will examine the use of the antibiotic minocycline to measure its usefulness in treating regressive autism. Past research suggests that autism may be linked with changes in the immune response that cause inflammation in the brain. Minocycline has known anti-inflammatory effects and has been shown to be helpful in other brain disorders such as Huntington's disease.

The third study seeks to address the widespread but unproven theory that autism may be treated successfully by chelation therapy, which seeks to remove heavy metals from the blood. Chelation is more commonly used to treat lead toxicity, but currently, many families seek the treatment to try to remove mercury and other metals from their autistic children's blood. This practice is based on the belief that many cases of autism were caused by exposure to thimerosol, a mercury-based preservative previously used in childhood vaccines.

 

 

www.sidsga.org
2300 Henderson Mill Rd., Suite 410

Atlanta, Georgia 30345
678-342-3360 or Powerline 1-800-822-2539 FAX 770-451-2466

-mail: gasids@mindspring.com