Am I eligible for the Next Infant Support Programme?

If you are expecting a baby and have a personal history of cot death, you may be eligible to access the Next Infant Support Programme. If you or your partner meet any of the following criteria please either contact us or complete the registration form:

• If you or your partner have previously lost a child to a sudden unexpected death in infancy (or childhood)
• If you or your partner have previously lost a brother or sister (including half-brothers/sisters) to a sudden unexpected death in infancy (or childhood)

If you don’t meet any of the above criteria, you should contact the Scottish Cot Death Trust before you complete your application form to discuss your personal situation.

The Next Infant Support Programme is provided free of charge to you and includes:

• Support from a dedicated support worker during your pregnancy and after the birth of your baby
• Provision of an Apnoea (breathing) Monitor for your new baby.
• Resuscitation training for you and your family in your own home, where possible
• Contact with other parents in a similar situation
• Counselling

NISP Registration Form

Support visits

Once we receive your request to enrol on the Next Infant Support Programme, we will contact you to make arrangements for our Community based  support worker to visit you. They will offer support to you throughout your pregnancy to help you deal with your emotions and anxieties.

Resuscitation training

When you are 32 – 36 weeks pregnant we will make arrangements for you and your key family members to have resuscitation training. This is provided in your own home. This training helps to prepare you for some of the more common emergency situations. Two different training scenarios can be covered – one using an infant mannequin and one without. We understand that some family members may not feel ready to cope with seeing a mannequin used for resuscitation training.

You may find the resuscitation training difficult to face. However, many parents have told us that they find it quite empowering and that they prefer to have the training before their new baby is born, rather than afterwards. If you would prefer to wait until your baby is born to have the resuscitation training, this can be arranged for you in hospital.

Sadly, we know from experience that when a baby or young child has suffered a sudden unexpected death in infancy, resuscitation is unlikely to be successful. The resuscitation training forms a vitally important part of the Next Infant Support Programme as in most situations if a baby or young child is found unresponsive, the cause is not likely to be a SUDI.

Apnoea Monitor loan

An apnoea (or breathing) monitor is one of the most practical aspects of the Next Infant Support Programme. These monitors are used to detect the baby’s breathing and will sound an alarm if the baby stops breathing. The monitor produces an audible “click” every time the baby breathes and parents often tell us that it is hearing the “click” that gives them the peace of mind they need to enable them to go to sleep at night.

When you are 32-36 weeks pregnant, we will arrange for your apnoea monitor to be delivered to you. You will be shown how to use it and you will need to bring it with you to the hospital when you go in to have your baby. As soon as your baby is born, the monitor can be attached and will offer peace of mind for you from the moment they are born.

Once you have been shown how your apnoea monitor works, you will also be provided with a video link so that you can watch in your own time the different functions of your monitor.

A room thermometer

Babies can overheat because of too much bedding or clothing, or because the room is too hot. As part of the Next Infant Support Programme we will provide you with a room thermometer to help you keep the baby’s room temperature at about 18ºC (65ºF).

Contact with other bereaved parents

We may be able to arrange for you to have contact with other parents whose baby died suddenly and unexpectedly and who went on to have another baby. You are likely to have questions such as they once did. They will understand your anxieties better than anyone.

Counselling

The Scottish Cot Death Trust offers professional counselling to anyone affected by cot death. This service is also available to you and can be discussed with you when you enrol on the Next Infant Support Programme. The same pool of counsellors is used for the Next Infant Support Programme as for bereaved family members. If you have linked with a counsellor previously you may want to see the same counsellor again. We will try to accommodate this if at all possible. If you have never accessed counselling before, have a look at how a referral to this service works.

Support after your baby is born

When you have enrolled on the Next Infant Support Programme the Scottish Cot Death Trust’s community support worker will make contact with you at 6 weeks, 6 months and 10 months to offer support. If you require any additional support during this time they will ensure that this is available to you, however, our focus is on being in the background but available – your time with your new baby should not be a reminder of the past but a time to look forward.