MOTHERS across north-east Essex are being given a baby box to put their newborn to sleep in. The free box, which will be given to every pregnant woman in the area, is small and prevents babies from rolling onto their fronts in a bid to stop cot deaths. It is an initiative which has been used in Finland for more than 80 years, saving countless lives. Now it is finally being introduced in the UK, with dozens of women lining the corridors of Colchester Hospital to get their free box and gifts.

Reporter CAROLINE TILLEY talks to one Colchester mum 28 years after she lost her daughter to cot death.

MEL Gibson knew instinctively there was something wrong when she woke up in the middle of the night back in February, 1988.

She said: “That particular night, Kelly had been restless.

“I can’t tell you if she was teething or if she just had an upset tummy.

“I was knackered. I changed her, I fed her, I burped her and I just snuggled up that night and all three of us have gone to sleep in our bed.

“I just woke up and straight away I knew.”

Kelly was just 12 weeks old when she died in her parents’ bed.

Mrs Gibson, of Colchester, was just 16 herself and spent the next few days not only trying to understand her baby had died, but blaming herself for her daughter’s death.

She said: “I thought I killed her.

“They told me some days later after her post mortem examination she had died from sudden infant death syndrome. It just happened.

“You can’t comprehend it unless you have been through it.

“For the first few weeks after she died I was still hearing babies crying.

“I even went through a crazy stage where I would see babies outside a shop and considered taking one. I was convinced they had given Kelly to someone else.”

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, or cot death, is a sudden, unexplained and unexpected death of a healthy baby.

Yet despite it claiming the lives of 300 UK babies every year, not enough is known about what causes it.

Experts believe SIDS occurs at a particular stage in a baby’s development, and that it affects babies who are vulnerable to certain environmental stresses.

This vulnerability may be caused by being born prematurely or having a low birth weight, or because of other reasons not yet identified.

Smoking, getting tangled in bedding, a minor illness or a breathing obstruction are all thought to be factors. There’s also an association between co-sleeping with your baby on a bed, sofa or chair and SIDS.

NHS advice has changed a lot in 28 years.

When Kelly was born, Mrs Gibson was told to place her on her front to sleep. Nowadays, babies are put to sleep on their backs.

Mrs Gibson, 45, has never been given any answers as to why Kelly died.

She said: "I was told she had no signs of any illness. She was perfectly healthy. I know if I contacted them now they still wouldn’t have any answers for me because they don’t know enough about it.

“It’s not good enough. If you had the answers it would help. It would help with closure and you dealing with it.”

Despite losing Kelly, Mrs Gibson went on to have her second baby, a boy, just two days shy of what would have been her daughter’s first birthday.

Her pregnancy was unexpected.

She now has six sons and several grandchildren, with two more on the way.

Mrs Gibson, of Greenstead, said: “The worry never leaves you. After Kelly, with some of my babies I was given a monitor which beeped and flashed a light when they breathed and an alarm went off if they didn’t.

“And now my sons have their own children I worry about them.

I am always nagging them not to sleep in the same bed.”

Mrs Gibson believes cot death is not talked about enough.

She has praised Colchester General Hospital for bringing in baby boxes but wishes it had been sooner.

She said: “If Finland started this in the 1930s then it’s been nearly 100 years. Has no-one been to Finland and asked about this in that time?

“Why haven’t we done this before? It could have stopped so many babies from dying.”

Mrs Gibson added: “People don’t talk about it and they need to. If people were more aware of it they might do more to prevent it happening.

“There’s nothing more heartbreaking than burying your own child. You wouldn’t wish it on your worst enemy. Even after 28 years it never leaves you.”