Ermahgerd! Mah baby’s gonna ‘splode I’m a terrible!
Worry. That’s what the world spews at you. From SIDS to stillbirth, from you’re a horrible person for not being able to breastfeed to you’re a horrible person for not purchasing the most expensive thing on the internet.
I can’t alleviate all your worries, but here’s a quick rundown on how likely you are for some horrible things to happen.
Infant refers to the first year of life as a note.
SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) / SUID
We’ve raised a nation of parents paranoid that their baby will die if not watched correctly, laid on its back, etc. Even when following best practices we’re still monitoring, checking on breathing, and paranoid as fuck. But how likely is SIDS?
According to the CDC, SIDS costs 2500 infant lives a year in the United States. Also according to the CDC there are about four million babies born a year in the US.
This means your infant has a one in 1,600 chance of dying of SIDS, or a one in 889 chance of dying of SUID (sudden unexpected infant death).
To contrast, babies born in the 1700s had a one in four chance (25%) of being dead before reaching the first birthday.
Stillbirth
You have a 1 in 115 chance of a stillbirth. Stillbirths do not count toward infant fatality statistics.
Overall infant mortality rate
614.7 in 100,000 or 1 in 162.
Mortality rate 1-4 years of age
Mortality rate 5-14 years of age
1 in 7,751
Conclusion
Imagine your baby is in a line of babies all holding hands. Look to your baby’s left and right, those kids are fine and so is yours. Look to the left and right of them. They’re fine too. Keep going until your child is holding hands with 80 children on her left hand and 80 on the right. You still have not reached the first death.
While it is indeed possible to eff the child up majorly through things such as not immunizing them against whooping cough and some of the horrible childhood diseases that are making a comeback, your chances of accidentally killing them are pretty low.
Somehow seven billion babies on this planet survived their first years.
