Wanganui still waiting for Pepi Pods

Wanganui missed out when nearly 1400 Pepi-Pods, portable sleep spaces for babies, were handed out by health boards around the country last year.

That is despite the city's high infant mortality rate attributed to sudden unexpected death in infancy (SUDI).

Eight DHBs distributed 1373 portable sleep spaces (PSSs) in 2013 for at-risk babies, a Pepi-Pod Programme report shows.

Pepi-Pods are not replacements for bassinets or cots that meet NZ safety standards, but are portable for when a baby is away from home. They can be placed in the parents' bed while still giving the baby its own safe sleeping space.

The Whanganui DHB said in January it would be looking for funding to distribute 300 Pepi-Pods a year, though it did not know when that would happen.

It reported 18 deaths of infants in the four years to 2012 - a rate of 4.03 for every 1000 live births - the highest in the country, according to a survey by the Child and Youth Mortality Review Committee (CYMRC).

The four-year block before that showed a rate of 3.54, with 16 deaths in the period between 2007-11.

The Pepi-Pod Programme report showed Waikato DHB distributed the most PSSs last year, 462, followed by Hawke's Bay with 320, though both DHBs' infant death rates were 2.65.

The eight DHBs that had handed out PSSs were Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Tairawhiti, Lakes, Taranaki, Hawkes Bay, Counties Manukau, and Northland.

WDHB child and youth mortality review co-ordinator Awhina Rushworth said it was too early to comment on the board's plans to distribute, and "a lot" of work was going into finalising the project.

Wanganui mother Kayla Maguire received a free Pepi-Pod from a friend in Hamilton, who was given one by the Waikato DHB. "They told her to pass it on," she said.

Wanganui Hospital head of paediatrics David Montgomery told the Chronicle in January the leading cause of Wanganui's high SUDI rates was poverty.

"I think the essential point to make is that socioeconomic disadvantage appears to be causally linked to the risk of SUDI," Dr Montgomery said.

During a WDHB board meeting, however, board member Michael Laws said he did not "buy the poverty argument at all" and that thousands of parents on low incomes were raising their children well.

He said it was an "extraordinarily minute percentage" of the community whose babies were dying due to things like unsafe sleeping habits.

Board member Allan Anderson thought it was important to receive a breakdown of each of Wanganui's 18 infant deaths in the four-year period to see how many could actually be attributed to SUDI.

The WDHB did not hold information about the individual deaths.