Advocacy & Legislation

Every year, there are more than 25,000 stillbirths in the United States. Many of these deaths are the result of birth defects, infections, umbilical cord problems, and chronic conditions of the mother. However, there is no known cause for as many as half of all stillbirths, leaving many parents without answers to the reasons for these deaths. This bill would expand current activities related to stillbirth and increase education and awareness among health care providers and families.

In addition, there are more than 4,600 sudden unexpected infant deaths each year and another 200 children between the ages 1 and 4 die without any obvious cause for their death. Many such tragedies could be prevented if there were a better understanding of the reasons why these infants and children died. The Act encourages states to complete scene investigations to better understand why these children died and establishes a national database to track these deaths and identify risk factors to prevent them in the future.

On May 18, 2010, more 30 family members and 15 supporting organizations showed their support of the Stillbirth and SUID Prevention, Education and Awareness Act by traveling to Washington to participate in a Congressional Educational Breakfast. Additional, over 40 Congressional meetings were conducted to urge their Congressman and Senators to sign on as co-sponsors of this crucial legislation.

The Stillbirth and SUID Prevention, Education, and Awareness Act would improve the collection of critical data to determine the causes of stillbirth, Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SUID) and Sudden Unexplained Death In Childhood (SUDC), increase education and awareness about how to prevent these tragedies in the future, and expand support services for families who have experienced a stillbirth or SUID loss.  It was introduced in Congress last summer by Senator Lautenberg and Congressman Pallone, both of New Jersey.

Paige's Mom, Stacy, was fortunate to have the opportunity to participate in meetings with 5 different Congressional teams including representatives for Senator Amy Klobuchar, Senator Al Franken and Congresswoman Michele Bachmann.  On May 18th, Senator Amy Klobuchar became a co-sponsor of the Act.  Then, on June 21st, Senator Franken, a member of the Health committee also signed on as co-sponsor.  We are so proud that  both of our Minnesota Senators represent 2 of only 16 co-sponsors. 

 
This is good progress, but there is still a lot more that needs to be done and we need as much help as possible. We need to utilize this momentum to focus on securing the support of our Representatives.