October is SIDS Awareness Month
October is Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Awareness Month. The death of an infant is a tremendous loss that may provoke serious feelings of sorrow, guilt, self-incrimination, and inadequacy in family members and caregivers. Parents need reassurance that the emotions they are experiencing are normal and a part of the healing process after such a traumatic event.
SIDS Mid-Atlantic gives support to families who have suffered the death of an infant. They provide materials on coping with the loss of an infant, resources for emotional support, and outreach and education regarding risk reduction to help prevent infant deaths. A free support group facilitated by a professional grief counselor is offered, and is open to anyone grieving the loss of a baby due to any cause. SIDS Mid-Atlantic also operates the "Cribs for Kids" program, which provides new, safe, portable cribs to needy families.
Since 1994, SIDS Educational Services has provided information and comfort to hundreds of bereaved families in the greater Washington metropolitan area through counseling, books, a hotline, referrals, and a support group. The charity has given away hundreds of SIDS Survival Guide books, in addition to free cribs and crib sheets to low-income families. SIDS Educational Services also educates pregnant teens and teen parents in local high schools about how to reduce the risk of SIDS and other infant deaths such as suffocation and strangulation.
For more information, contact:
SIDS Mid-Atlantic
PO Box 799
Haymarket VA 20168
703.955.6899
sidsma27@aol.com
SIDS Educational Services
2905 64th Avenue
Cheverly, MD 20785
301.322.2620
sidses@aol.com
