or munchausen syndrome by proxy.which results in a mother harming her children to gain attention, usually from doctors and nurses. but during the 1950s and 1960s, little was known about munchausen's or the mysterious crib death, today known as sudden infant death syndrome. which is what doctors said several of the noe babies died from. >> sids is the sudden death of an infant below the age of 1 where a very thorough investigation fails to explain why the death occurred. >> dr. mark feldman is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the university of alabama. >> we have to understand a few things about sudden infant death syndrome. one is that there is typically no warning sign. the first discovery that something is wrong is the death of the child. marie noe, somewhat surprisingly, had a few near death experiences with some of her kids. there aren't serial sids deaths in the family. the saying was that one sids death in a family is sids. two is suspicious and three is homicide. >> dr. molly depena, who is a sids expert