Manitoba advocate says progress has stalled on curbing sleep-related infant deaths

A new report says Manitoba has made little progress in reducing the number of sleep-related infant deaths and must do more to help disadvantaged families. The report from the Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth says there were 48 sleep-related infant deaths in a three-year period that ended in 2021. That’s the roughly the same average annual rate found in an earlier study that looked at the period between 2009 and 2018. The advocate, Sherry Gott, says things have not changed despite government efforts to educate parents about safe sleep habits such as putting babies on their backs in a safe space like a crib. She says the majority of cases occurred in overcrowded homes, 81 per cent of the infants who died were Indigenous, and one-third of the homes…

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