suspicion of sudden infant death syndrome & injuries to infants: the effects of type of death certifier, training, and economics

Pathologizing the Unknown: A Sociological Explanation for the (Mis-)Use of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome as a Diagnosis

“…The willingness to accept SIDS as a cause of death may be attributed to the societal belief that homes and families are safe places for children (Smithey & Ramirez, 2004). This belief influences death investigators and potentially biases them against seeing or acknowledging other causes of death (Smithey & Ramirez, 2004).…”

“…The willingness to accept SIDS as a cause of death may be attributed to the societal belief that homes and families are safe places for children (Smithey & Ramirez, 2004). This belief influences death investigators and potentially biases them against seeing or acknowledging other causes of death (Smithey & Ramirez, 2004). Rather than acknowledging the possibility of an unsafe home and therefore confronting the families further during an investigation, death investigators may unintentionally favour using SIDS to absolve their own biases while absolving families of guilt.…”

“…Without a diagnosis, families run the risk of not having social recognition of their situation and possibly worse, of being accused of faking or lying about their child's condition or cause of death (Jutel, 2009). SIDS is a useful term socially as it suggests that the child's death was out of the parents' control (Smithey & Ramirez, 2004). As SIDS has turned into an implication of a natural disease process, attributing a death to SIDS absolves parents of guilt associated with their child's death.…”