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Aims and objectives To reveal the prominent discourses and assigned social ordering given to women in paediatric research in Sweden concerning the subject of sudden infant death syndrome. Background There are no further studies in Sweden and elsewhere, regarding publishing portraits of women's social ordering in nursing research surrounding sudden infant death syndrome. Design and methods The material encompassed all 55 articles/comments published by the Swedish Medical Journal 1980-2007 (7 March) as retrieved using selected keywords. The items were accessed in full text, and a discourse analytical approach was used triangulated with feminist theoretical perspectives. Results Three main discourses were identified: (1) women as bearers of guilt and accountability, (2) a social ordering where women's biology and lifestyles received great attention together with a tribute to mothers as having the principal responsibility as parent and caregiver and (3) gender-based health policy portrayals showing women/mothers in marginalised social and structural contexts or exposed to one-sided disciplinary penal codes despite the Swedish welfare state having long declared gender equality in its family policies and in paediatric nursing practices. Conclusions Although results from this study primarily relate to the Swedish contexts, they may also reflect the dual role in paediatric nursing practices in other countries, that is, (1) as being medical experts on children's health (paediatrics and nursing) and (2) as change agents with regard to childcare and practical recommendations directed to individuals (mothers, fathers, both or other caregivers of infants). Relevance to clinical practice The study highlights the needs of not merely seeing the family or the mother as ultimate and individual beneficiaries of medical/practical advice about child-caring duties in infancy. Further studies are encouraged to recognise infant nursing practices, gender equality and safe parenthood in child health research and nursing practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of present investigation is to discover publishing portrayals embedded in sudden infant death informatics disseminated by a medical journal at regional level. In particular, gender configurative domains regarding health policy and nursing practices are scrutinized. A qualitative literature review was performed using a critical discourse analytical approach. The full texts of 55 articles/comments published within the field by the Swedish Medical Journal from January 1, 1980 to March 6, 2007 were examined. Four configurative domains were recognized as setting the agenda and as working throughout the reviewed text viz., (a) the clinical—medical episteme, (b) the individualized family domain, (c) gender domains in prevention and nursing practices, and finally (d) the configurative entry into gendered academic writing of the subject in view. The skewed gendered publishing portrayals observed were consistent throughout more than two decades. Gender analysis in child health research is highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The association between sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and maternal smoking was compared between the United States and Sweden—two countries with different health care and social support programs and degrees of sociocultural heterogeneity. For 1990–1991 among the five US race/ethnic groups studied, SIDS rates ranged from a high of 3.0 infant deaths per 1,000 live births for American Indians to a low of 0.8 for Hispanics and Asian and Pacific Islanders. The SIDS rate for Sweden (using 1983–1992 data) was 0.9. The strong association between maternal smoking and SIDS persisted after controlling for maternal age and live birth order. Adjusted odds ratios ranged from 1.6 to 2.5 for mothers who smoked 1–9 cigarettes per day during pregnancy (compared with nonsmokers) and from 2.3 to 3.8 for mothers who smoked 10 or more cigarettes per day during pregnancy. Although birth weight had a strong independent effect on SIDS, the addition of birth weight to the models lowered the odds ratios for maternal smoking only slightly, suggesting that the effect of smoking on SIDS is not mediated through birth weight. SIDS rates increased with the amount smoked for all US race/ethnic groups and for Sweden. Smoking is one of the most important preventable risk factors for SIDS, and smoking prevention/intervention programs have the potential to substantially lower SIDS rates in the United States and Sweden and presumably elsewhere as well. Am J Epidemiol 1997;146:249–57. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To evaluate the effect of maternal smoking on intrauterine growth of babies who died of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), birthweights of SIDS infants and their surviving siblings were compared with birthweights of infants in sibships were all infants survived the first year of life. We studied 184,349 mothers with at least two births registered in the population-based Swedish Medical Birth Registry during 1983-91. The mother being the unit of analysis, birthweight and gestational age of her infants were the repeated measures used in a repeated measures analysis of variance. Mothers whose first two infants survived at least 1 year, smoked less than mothers of SIDS infants, 25 and 41% (P < 0.01). Overall, SIDS mothers did not smoke more while pregnant with the SIDS infant than while pregnant with the surviving sibling. SIDS siblings weighted, on average, 90 g less than infants in non-affected sibships. SIDS babies were even lighter, 193 g, and had 3.8 days shorter mean gestational age, compared with same birth-order babies in non-affected sibships. After adjustment for gestational age, the birthweight difference changed only slightly for SIDS siblings, while the difference for SIDS infants was reduced from 193 to 110 g. Further adjustment for smoking reduced the birthweight difference for SIDS siblings, from 74 to 50 g, and SIDS infants, from 110 to 82 g. Intrauterine growth retardation of sibships with a SIDS baby is explained only partly by maternal smoking. The even lower birthweight of the SIDS baby, resulting from shorter gestational age, cannot be explained by smoking, suggesting pregnancy factors specific to the SIDS baby and not to its siblings.