[Prevention of sudden infant death in Germany].

In Germany there are several committed which however haven't got together yet in order to set up a systematic health education campaign. So far the knowledge of other professional fields like that of graphic designers, specialists of communication and public health scientists hasn't been sufficiently used to familiarize nearly all pregnant women, parents, grandparents and babysitters with those known medical subject matters. Hopefully paediatricians, gynaecologists, children's nurses, midwives, breast-feeding consultants, paediatric preventive assistants, consultants for pregnant women who smoke and mothers in general will soon start to get going an effective lasting and possibly nationwide preventive campaign which will be supported by the competent social ministries and financing authorities, self-help groups, graphic designers, specialists for communication and public health scientists. The aim should be to reduce the amount of sudden infant death cases to or even below the level of The Netherlands (minimum figure in 2002: 0.11 SID cases per 1.000 live births). Already in 1972-15 years before the beginning of the Dutch preventive campaign--in former East Germany a ministerial instruction had advised mothers not to let infants sleep on prone position. Historically, the promotion of infants sleeping on prone position seems to have been a tragic break of tradition in the western world in between 1970 and 1990, as infants had been put to sleep almost only on their back during the past centuries. If we compare East and West Germany concerning the influence on the ways of looking after infants since the 1960th of the last century it has become clear that the advice of medical authorities mainly effects the way of nursing regardless of the political system. More and more, paediatricians, gynaecologists, midwives and children's nurses should become aware of this responsibility.