Could a Breathable Mattress Help Your Baby Avoid SIDS?

Around the time my second baby was born, in 2014, I started seeing ads for a new air-permeable crib mattress. It featured a baby sleeping face down with reassurance that she could safely breathe right through the mattress. With a gesture to sudden infant death syndrome and suffocation, it urged me to “avoid the possible threat of waking up to a tragedy.”
Like many parents with new babies, I have a great fear of SIDS. One of the best ways to reduce the risk of the still-mysterious disease is to put babies down to sleep on their backs, but between about 4 and 6 months, babies learn to roll onto their bellies. The American Academy of Pediatrics reassures us that as long as they're being put down on their backs in a safe sleep environment, they're fine, particularly as more than 70 percent of SIDS and suffocation deaths occur before 4 months of age.