What does 'overlaid itself' mean on a baby's death certificate?

[Randomchat]

Hello. I hope this doesn't upset anyone.

I think my relative's death certificate says "overlaid itself" and "not certified". She was only 8 weeks old.

I think that means she suffocated in bed? I think overlaying is where someone lies on top of someone else but "overlaid itself" suggests there was no-one else involved, would that be right do you think?

And why would the death not be certified? I've never come across this before. Was it ok to just report the death of your own child without a doctor?

Poor baby. And poor family. They went on to have 3 sons but no other daughters.

I would guess that that is a cot death.

google search…

‘“Overlaying" refers to the accidental suffocation of an infant or young child when a larger person rolls onto them or presses against their face while sleeping in an adult bed’.

Yes it would seem to be a cot death as no other person appears to have been involved.

@PetrineBut that doesn’t explain he use of ‘itself’ after tge word ‘overlaying’ which is the OP’s query.

I wondered if it was something like they got wedged between the cot bars and the mattress?

'Overlain' is very common on older death certs. An infant found dead in bed without obvious other cause was frequently assumed to have been rolled onto and accidentally smothered by one of the other occupants. Not uncommon in times when many families slept several to a bed, but it also would have been assumed when it was actually a cot death for other invisible reasons.

In this case with the addition of 'itself' I'd assume the baby was the only occupant of the bed at the time, and that with no visible other cause they assumed it had either rolled over onto its front and been unable to breathe or had got tangled in the blanket. But again multiple causes of sudden infant death are possible.

It could be an older description of positional asphyxia - very young babies can get into an awkward position, not be able to get out of it and cut off their own airway.

Exactly this. It’s very common in infant death birth certs.

8-16 weeks is the peak risk period for SIDS or SUDI.

Positional asphyxiation is why modern advice says that sleeping spaces must be firm, flat and clear of objects.

I am finding it hard to read the scanned document - is this 1880 and in England? Perhaps that would help someone with the context about not being certified - does it definitely mean the death was not certified by a medical professional? I wonder if it means that the baby was moved from the bed, deceased, and perhaps taken somwehere in search of medical help which would have been too late so the cause of death was only going by the account of what had happened because nobody saw them in situ.

In these days babies were laid to sleep swaddled, often on their front, with cot bumpers and so on around them.

YY that's what I was thinking - they could have been half on an adult pillow for example. And swaddling reduces their ability to adjust their positioning, which is why it's now strongly advised against if you cosleep, and they say if you choose to swaddle a baby who sleeps in a cot, you should transition away from swaddling once they can roll.

I wondered about SIDS. Wouldn't have been recognised then I suppose, with modern safe sleep practices being linked to minimising the risk which again, wouldn't have been practiced at that time.

It means they found the baby dead in its cot and assumed it had suffocated in its sleep. That might not actually have been the genuine cause of death - it's perfectly possible that the baby died from some other cause that wasn't noticed or understood at the time. It could have been SIDS, or an underlying health condition or infection they weren't aware of, or if these are records from the 1800s, possibly even dosing the baby with medicine meant to soothe it. But essentially, it means the baby died in its sleep without any obvious outward signs of harm or illness.

At that time, I don't think deaths had to be certified by a medical professional. The cause of death could be provided by the informant as long as they were in attendance or present at the death. In this case the father was the informant.

It's mentioned in the books of Call the Midwife, and it refers to the idea of someone rolling onto the baby, but whether it's also used for other forms of cot death I don't know.
In the days before contraception and abortion, it was, err, not always accidental, but one would hope that would happen with new borns rather than at 8 weeks.

Poor little soul.

Yes times were hard in the 1800’s. 15-16% of babies died before they reached the age of 1 year old.

I imagine this must be really upsetting for the OP to find out. One of her ancestors who didn’t make it. Very sad.

Poor baby. Thanks for all your thoughts about it. I'd never seen that description before.

I remember seeing that term on a 'bill of mortality' from London from the 17th century. It must have been in use for a very long time. Along with 'chrisom' which meant that a baby had died in the first month of life.
I found out that a child in my family, my great grand-aunt's oldest child, died from drinking a bottle of poison - some kind of patent medicine - at the age of two. The stories that you turn up are sometimes very sad.