This paper contains life story interviews conducted between 2002 and 2004 with 19 mothers of Māori infants who have died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Participants were from both urban and rural locations throughout New Zealand. Experiences of alienation, marginalisation and exclusion, as narrated by the bereaved mothers, attest to lives lived under conditions of serious deprivation in an affluent society. Constructing these experiences as non-modifiable risk factors hinders the development of policy and health promotion interventions that could improve the conditions in which Māori mothers live and raise their babies.
