SIDS: Saving lives through tragic loss

Liz Montgomery’s wavy blonde hair fell onto her shoulders as she sat on a dark blue couch inside her Fourth Street office. A large, colorful quilt hung behind her as she spoke about her son, Mason Rae. Photographs of babies filled all but three tiles on the knitted quilt at the Inland Northwest SIDS/SUID Foundation in Coeur d’Alene.

Montgomery scanned the blanket with her green eyes until she found a familiar face near the bottom row. Her son, pictured between Danielle and Anneliese, smiled back at her.

The babies pictured on this quilt fell victim to Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SUID). Displaying the blanket is just one way the Inland Northwest SIDS/SUID Foundation remembers and pays tribute to the babies lost by local bereaved families.

Mason died at just five months old after he rolled into a couch and suffocated at a babysitter’s home in 2003. After her son’s tragic death, Montgomery was determined to educate others on the dangers of unsafe sleep and SUID.

As the founder and executive director of the Inland Northwest SIDS/SUID Foundation, Montgomery said the death of her son motivated her to launch this non-profit organization in 2012.

“The reason behind the foundation is because of my son, Mason,” Montgomery said. “He’s the reason for this whole organization.”

With help from close friends with backgrounds in business, Montgomery studied non-profit business management at the University of Idaho, wrote grants to local organizations, and hosted fundraisers to gain support for her new foundation. She soon established a board of directors and, with a $5,000 budget in the first year, began educating community members on the dangers of unsafe infant sleep.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 3,700 infants die from SUID each year. The foundation states that 90 percent of these cases may have been avoided if caregivers knew more about safe infant sleep. SUID is the No. 1 cause of death for babies 1 month to 12 months of age.

“It’s a huge problem,” Montgomery said. “And the majority being preventive deaths. That’s what we focus the safe sleep education on. You can prevent these accidental deaths if you follow safe sleep.”

Now in its seventh year, the Inland Northwest SIDS/SUID Foundation offers a wide variety of complementary classes and services to help support and educate families. Programs include Safe Sleep University, Child Passenger Safety, and bereavement support for families who have experienced a pregnancy or infant loss.

Made up of seven active board members, medical director Dr. Kathleen Webb, and two full-time employees, the foundation hosted over 200 awareness events, 77 safe sleep classes in three states, and distributed over 35,000 pieces of literature to the Inland Northwest. Montgomery also connects with local hospitals and emergency medical professionals to offer safe sleep and SUID education.

The foundation is funded by local grants, personal donations and fundraisers. Major donors include Women’s Gift Alliance, Cancer & Community Charities, the Idaho Department of Transportation, and United Way of North Idaho.

“I love my community, and the community loves us back,” Montgomery said. “We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for this community. There’s no way we could do the work that we do without them.”

Since its inception, Montgomery believes the Inland Northwest SIDS/SUID Foundation has made a positive impact on the community.

“From 2008-2012, a baby born in Idaho was 2 percent more likely to die of SUID than other babies born in the U.S.,” Montgomery said. “After five years of dedication to safe sleep education and awareness from the Inland Northwest SIDS Foundation and our partners, Idaho babies now have a 4 percent less chance of dying from SUID [than] other babies in the U.S. This equals out to saving one baby’s life every year. While these numbers might seem small, any parent who had suffered the death of their child will tell you how significant this really is.”

Montgomery said her foundation’s teachings are based on the recommendations provided by several national health organizations.

“Everything that we teach and support is best practice from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Institute of Health and the CDC,” Montgomery said.

Although safe sleep education is the main focus of the foundation, Montgomery’s organization also provides complimentary car seat checks, sleep sacks to those who take the Safe Sleep 101 course, and free pack and play cribs to families in need of a safe sleeping environment for their infant.

For 23-year-old Jonnie Wehlast, the guidance she and her fiancé, Jacob, received at the Safe Sleep 101 class was invaluable as new parents. Her young family also received a pack and play from the foundation for their 4-month-old son, Mopar.

“I’m one of those people who’s not ashamed to admit that I lack information on something and that I need to learn,” Wehlast said. “The Inland Northwest SIDS/SUID Foundation was one of the first things that we actually did as a parenting class. My son is now almost five months old and he sleeps alone, on his back, in his crib, in his room, and he sleeps through the night.”

Wehlast noticed a generational gap when it came to safe sleep practices.

“So much has changed,” Wehlast said. “I slept on my stomach as an infant, and now ‘Back to Sleep’ is the safest and only option. So many young adults become parents without having that information provided to them.”

Through her years of teaching and advocating for safe sleep, Montgomery believes that immediate family are the most important advocates when it comes to safe sleep practices, which includes the A-B-C’s of safe sleep: Alone, back, crib.

“You take parenting advice from your family structure,” Montgomery said. “Your elders, your parents. That’s the other piece of it is to get parents, grandparents and great grandparents onboard. We’ve had five generations at the Safe Sleep 101 class.”

Although she spends her time educating medical staff, parents, and caregivers about safe sleep and SUID prevention, Montgomery said that spreading the message of safe sleep has helped her cope with the loss of her son.

“I know I speak for the majority of families that have lost a baby, but if our child’s story can be told to save the life of another baby, that means the world to us. Use us as an example. Use our child to learn from. Use what we didn’t know to keep your baby safe because the majority of us had no idea that what we were doing was unsafe.”

Montgomery said it helps to know that her son is making a difference in families around the community.

“To know that our children are making a difference even though they’re not here means a lot to us.”

For more information contact Inland Northwest SIDS/SUID Foundation at (208) 557-4371 or visit Inwsids.org.