SINGAPORE — A 21-day-old infant’s death was recorded as an open verdict after the State Coroner said on Thursday (28 October) that he could have possibly suffocated while being carried in his confinement nanny’s arms.
While there was no evidence of suffocation at an autopsy, a forensic pathologist from the Health Sciences Authority was unable to exclude it as a possible cause of death due to circumstantial evidence.
His cause of death was therefore certified as “unascertained”, and sudden infant death syndrome and asphyxia cannot be ruled out.
Noting this, former State Coroner Kamala Ponnampalam who said, “While the circumstances surrounding (the baby’s) demise are inconclusive, the evidence led does not suggest foul play. However, as (his) cause of death remains unascertained, I am constrained to record an open verdict.”
The 57-year-old nanny had been carrying the baby in her arms until she fell asleep while seated on her bed and leaning against the wall behind her in the wee hours of 19 November last year. The mother found her son’s face against the nanny’s chest.
The nanny later woke up and placed him in a baby cot before leaving the room. But when the mother checked on the baby later, she found him unresponsive. They brought the baby to KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital and he was pronounced dead at 5.18am.
‘Poor sleep practices’
Delivering her verdict, Ponnampalam noted that this was yet another case of “poor sleep practices” which may have led to infant death. “The cases before this court have shown that an infant who falls asleep in a prone position is more likely to fall victim to accidental suffocation.”
She added that parents and caregivers must bear in mind that fatigue can set in as they care for the infant through the night, which risks the baby falling asleep in an unsafe sleep position when the caregiver dozes off even briefly.
In cases where the baby is unable to settle, caregivers must adopt other strategies or hand over to another adult than risk baby falling asleep prone, said Ponnampalam.
The baby was born at full term on 29 October last year and discharged well on 2 November.
His parents engaged a nanny, who had no formal training as a confinement nanny and gained experience through caring for her younger siblings and previous jobs with children. She was recommended by the baby’s father’s friend, who had engaged her.
Her duties included feeing, bathing and caring for the baby while cooking confinement food for his mother, as well as washing the baby paraphernalia. She occupied and slept in the same room as the baby on the second floor of the residence, on a bed adjacent to his cot.
The baby was fed a combination of breast milk and formula milk in two to three hour intervals. He was observed to spit up after each feed and developed a…
Read More: Infant who died may have suffocated in nanny’s arms: State Coroner