First Candle Hosts ISPID 2025 Conference: Global Collaboration for Infant Survival
First Candle was honored to host the International Society for the Study and Prevention of Perinatal and Infant Death (ISPID) 2025 conference October 8 -10, which brought together more than 340 researchers, medical professionals, advocates, and parents from around the world.
This year the virtual conference focused on Fostering Unity for Infant Survival: Collaborative Approaches Across Communities which reinforced First Candle’s commitment to advancing birth equity by building cross-sector partnerships, confronting systemic inequities, and ensuring that every family—regardless of race, culture, or background—has the knowledge, resources, and support needed for their baby to survive and thrive.
Supporting parents remains one of First Candle’s top priorities, and the conference reflected that commitment as families actively participated, with parents and siblings sharing lived experiences at plenary and breakout sessions, including one-on-one discussions with researchers (“Talking with families reminds us why we do what we do,” one said.) Infant and child loss memorials – circles of love and remembrance – were also held in different global time zones.
The three days featured results of research studies around epidemiology, education, pathology, bereavement, and child death review, with colleague discussion and insights shared throughout.
Because the conference was so full and we knew people could not be everywhere at once, everything was recorded; participants can access videos, posters, and other information for six months and get in touch with each other.
Presentations brought out challenges familiar to all of us who work in this sphere: insufficient funding to establish and expand programs or research projects, even when they’re seen as valuable; differences in global vocabulary, definitions, and systems, which can make accurate comparisons difficult and hamper transferability; and the challenges inherent in researching complex functions.
Despite this, we see everyone undaunted as they push ahead to expand our knowledge, refine our approaches, ask new questions, and see where advances lead us.
Being among so many working within their own disciplines to save babies underscores for all of us at First Candle the responsibility we carry: to change behaviors around infant sleep practices through positive education and understanding, and to support loss families. We know that what we do saves lives, and we are proud to stand among our colleagues as we work together.
2025 ISPID presentations and presenters included:
Epidemiology: Sudden Unexpected Infant Deaths (SUID): Uncovering Trends, Disparities & Public Health Challenges. Carrie Shapiro-Mendoza, Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University.
Pathology: Serotonergic Receptor Binding in the Brainstem in the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome in a High-Risk Population. Robin Haynes, PhD, Boston Children’s Hospital.
Child Death Review: Findings from a survey of international CDR practices. Joanna Garstang, MD, University of Birmingham. A study by the ISPID CDR Working Group.
Physiology: Insights into the physiological relevance of genetic variants found in SIDS. Jan Ramirez, PhD, University of Washington. Authors from the Seattle Children’s Research Institute.
Stillbirth: Epidemiology, Pathology, Genetics, & Current Advancements. Alexander Heazell, MBChB (Hons) PhD FRCOG, University of Manchester.
Education: Thematic Panel: The Realities of Bed Sharing: Community Practices, Clinical Perspectives, and International Insights. Destiny Stokes, MPH, First Candle; Kyran Quinlan, MD, MPH, Rush University Medical Center.
Bereavement: Bereavement support, particularly among ethnically diverse communities – what works and what doesn’t. Xaviera Bell, MS, CLE, CD, cHET, PFP, Zeal of Xander.
