Nine ‘unexpected’ baby deaths in town

Babies in Walsall tragically died when they fell asleep on sofas or in bed with their parents who had been drinking, a report has said.

A report presented to Walsall’s Health and Wellbeing Board, which met on January 26, revealed there had been nine ‘unexpected’ deaths – out of a total of 32 – in 2019/20.

Health bosses said most of these were down to unsafe practices such as sofa sleeping, co-sleeping, alcohol misuse or pillows and bumpers in cots.

Stark messages are now being shared to promote safe sleeping practices across Walsall and the Black Country, based on the Who’s In Charge? campaign launched in Birmingham last year.

The initiative, by Birmingham Community Healthcare Trust and Birmingham Safeguarding Children Partnership, saw scenarios created on video where parents returned home drunk before falling asleep on a sofa or in bed with their children.

Esther Higdon, senior programme development and commissioning manager, children and young people at Walsall, said 12 of the 32 deaths in 2019 to 2020 happened within the first 28 days.

She said these were expected due to babies being born prematurely and having very low weight or congenital anomalies.

But of the deaths of babies older than a month old, she said nine were unexpected.

She said: “The majority of these deaths have been due to safe sleeping issues, whether it is co-sleeping, sofa sleeping, parents drinking alcohol whilst caring for the child or bumpers and pillows in the cot.

“We are going to be taking forward work around safer sleeping, maternal smoking during pregnancy and smoking in the household.

“We have been promoting videos around alcohol use when caring for a young child, which were produced originally in Birmingham and are now being shared.”

Councillor Stephen Craddock, portfolio holder for health and wellbeing added: “I’ve watched the Who’s In Charge? videos and they are so realistic.

“I could hardly catch my breath and it scared the living daylights out of me. Very realistic and a very powerful message.”

The two-minute Who’s In Charge videos were aimed at showing parents that drinking could not only hinder their ability to meet their babies’ needs but also make them an active danger to their child.

Dr Joanna Garstang, consultant community paediatrician at Birmingham Community Healthcare, said: “The safest place for a baby to sleep is on their back, in their own cot, in a room with their parents.

“It is never safe for a baby to share a bed or a sofa with anyone who has drunk alcohol or used drugs.”