Dying Angel
TRIGGER WARNING:
Child Abuse
What is Shaken Baby Syndrome?
Shaken Baby Syndrome is a form of a traumatic brain injury caused by severe shaking, throwing, or physical violence, against an infant.
1 in 4 infants who form Shaken Baby Syndrome die. It only takes 3 seconds to cause a traumtic brain injury in a young child.
When Shaken Baby Syndrome is directly caused by shaking, it stems from the back and forth movement of the brain inside the skull. This is because infants are unable to hold the weight of their heads up.
Abuse most often occurs when an infant cries or when new parents are on drugs. If you ever have urges to shake an infant, stop, set your child down somewhere safe, and leave the room until you have calmed down.
Why is this Important?
Abuse is preventable. New parents need to understand the effects of SBS and how to keep their little ones safe. Awareness and understanding is the first step in preventing the perpertuation of physical violence against children.
Giving people the opportunity to reach in, to touch and interact with a representation of both the physical and emotional damage caused by such abuse, will cause people to think. When shown the effects in all their melancholy horror, it will allow people the opportunity to process why SBS is so damaging.
Lastly, as someone who was shaken as an infant, I find this to be a cathartic expression of what my siblings and I endured in our youth. I believe allowing my voice to be heard will push people to take more action against the people who shake infants, and allow for a more widespread understanding of both the abuse and the condition caused by it.
Sources:
This website will be updated as I continue to work on this piece. For now, here are my reference photos:
The photos above are of a prototype made using a toy doll crib, which is around the size of a shoe. Inside, there are a multitude of small toys. In the future, these will be specifically picked with certain meanings behind them. I already have a few objects prepared for this, but they could not fit in the crib.
In the center, there is a flower. Which will be a memorial one day. That may be a larger flower or a few other representative objects.(IE, a photo album with no photos, a stuffed animal with the words 'get well soon' written on its chest, etc)
The stuffed animals represent innocence and the memorial is in the middle of it all; representing death, grief, and a loss of innocence.
The crib is meant to be the size of a twin size bed. Which speaks on how oftentimes those who survive being shaken have brain damage that causes them to physically and mentally stop growing. That makes it so they are always in some sort of crib.