MANITOBA ADVOCATE RELEASES SPECIAL REPORT: SHIFTING THE LENS: UNDERSTANDING AND CONFRONTING INEQUITIES IN SLEEP-RELATED INFANT DEATHS IN MANITOBA
Today, Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth Sherry Gott released Shifting the Lens: Understanding and Confronting Inequities in Sleep-Related Infant Deaths in Manitoba, a special report which re-examines the issue of sleep-related infant deaths. This report is a re-framed follow-up to the 2020 Special Report Safe and Sound: A Special Report on the Unexpected Sleep-Related Deaths of 145 Manitoba Infants. It highlights the increased responsibility governments hold in preventing these tragedies.
“This report demonstrates that risks for sleep-related infant deaths do not just derive from individual decisions, behaviours, and practices. Rather, they are in large part the result of the conditions of people’s daily lives and the wider set of factors and systems that shape them. These are known as the social determinants of health and are factors over which caregivers and families have very little control,” said Manitoba Advocate Sherry Gott. “It is unfair and ineffective to place the burden of prevention of sleep-related infant deaths solely on the shoulders of caregivers. Rather, it is the responsibility of the Government of Manitoba to ensure the equitable distribution of the social determinants of health so every infant has an equal chance to thrive no matter who they are, where they live, or who their caregivers may be.”
Read our media release in English (PDF) or French (PDF) here.
Read the Special Report, Shifting the Lens in English (PDF) or French (PDF) here.
Requests or other media inquiries can be directed to Public Education Manager Lindsay Ridgley at lridgley@manitobaadvocate.ca.