in Nunavik, “tenfold” risk factors

“Jasmine’s body was still warm when a relative discovered it. Entering the family room, he found the little one of 2 months lying on her side, her mouth pressed against her father’s back, recount The duty. As he took her in his arms, he noticed that she had stopped breathing.

Last year, the police found a total of twelve lifeless infants in Nunavik. This territory of approximately 14,000 inhabitants, almost as large as France, is located in northern Quebec and is 90% populated by Inuit. All these babies, the newspaper says, are dead ‘“under obscure or unexplained circumstances”.

“The year 2021 has been catastrophic”, deplores the local police chief, Jean-Pierre Larose. As for midwife Marie-Laure Vachon, she says:

In Puvirnituq, when you arrive at the airport and turn the corner, there is a Quebec flag. Each time, I close my eyes and wonder if he’s going to be at half mast. He is at half mast when there are deaths in the village, and there are months when he never gets up.”

Tenfold risk factors

According to official statistics, the infant mortality rate is almost seven times higher in Nunavik than in Quebec. According to the daily, thirty-one Inuit children died there from 2015 to 2021. Sudden infant death syndrome is by far the leading cause of advanced death, the risk factors being “tenfolds” taking into account the socio-economic context. At least 90% of the population of Puvirnituq smokes, assures M^me Vachon, who also mentions fetal alcoholism. What’s more, “60 % of children under 6 years growing up in an overcrowded house”.

Dr. Faisca Richer, from the Nunavik Public Health Branch, explains: “When there are fifteen of us and the young couple is not the owner of the accommodation, they cannot force everyone to smoke outside. So babies are going to be exposed to more smoking.”

In his editorial, the Homework Don’t give up, the housing shortage is destroying lives in Nunavik:

As long as the families are forced to pile up at twelve, even at fifteen, in a badly heated, badly ventilated house, it will be beautiful to strengthen prevention and distribute baby beds to all winds […], numbers [des décès] will not go down.”

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