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Consider The Numbers By Robin Rice Morris
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Fearfully, and with an awful respect, I consider the numbers. Five thousand, at least, each year in the U.S. alone. That means someone's baby died of SIDS today. Probably more than a dozen. How many people then -be they mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, grandparents, godparents, babysitters- how many were struck by death's powerful blow, dealt as if from a professional heavywieght boxer who allows allows his novice contender no handycap? And how many funerals, full of well-intentioned people who grasped at meanings which were not there -are still not there- smacked by the unfairness of it all? Afterall, isn't death suppose to come to six-foot-tall old men a full lifetime before it claims twenty-six-inch-long baby boys? Or what about the infant car seats that sat hauntingly empty? How many of them remained strapped in until, somehow, someone was able to summon the Herculean strength it took to move it to the basement, or closet, or someone else's car where someone else's baby would likely have the audacity to live long enough to outgrow it? How many parents' arms felt heavy and yet hollow, useless save to run grief-thickend blood through, keeping life going whether they really wanted it to or not? How many lockets of hair served as the only hard and fast proof that there really was a baby here, once, who smiled and cried and whose life made that house a home and those people a family? How many pacifiers (or botties or rattles) were unexpectedly found behind a couch or under a chair, causing an unsuspecting father to buckle at the knees, and just when life's journey was haltingly yet courageously being undertaken again? And who knows the number of imaginary cries and automatic wake-up calls for midnight feedings there were that drew a mother nearly to the nursery door before she remembered and sunk to the floor in utter angish. How many future little league players will never suit up? And how many of tomorrow's dance recitals will be one angelic ballerina short, without anyone even knowing it? And the worst to consider: next year's batch. Next year's 5,000 or so who are in the womb as we speak, luring innocent parents-to-be into dreaming dreams and making plans clear through the college years. Joyous dreams and important plans that will never be. Next year's 5,000, who will each be the worlds most beautiful baby, and the worlds most tragic death. So, yes, as my own precious children quiet into lovely sleep, spared one more day from this and all the other possible deaths out there that could break me in a moment, I do consider the numbers. I consider the numbers, and I pray.
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Katelin Nicole Secreto March 12----July 13, 1998
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I create this web site in loving memory of my daughter Katie, who was stolen from us by this horrible thing called SIDS. And as my contribution to October, SIDS awareness month. There are things every new parent should know about SIDS. We don't know what it is, we don't know how to pevent it. We do know things to do that will increase our chances of preventing it. Since Mrs.Morris wrote that essay, the SIDS rate in the U.S. have dropped nearly 50% Doctors attribute this mostly to the 'Back to Sleep' Campaign. This campaign has taught parents to put their babies to sleep on their backs, Not their stomachs or their sides. Other important things parents should do are: Keep your baby in a smoke free enviroment, Breastfeed, Keep your baby warm not hot, and leave baby's head and neck exposed, thats how they lose excess body heat. Remember these things and pass them on! Thanks for visiting, Sarah Secreto.Please donate to SIDS research or to get more info call 1-800-265-SIDS
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