I have read through the text of this article in Pediatrics and frankly, I
think it is appalling. The conclusions they came up with are simply not
supported by the content of the article.

Regarding the question of babies who were "overlaid" and died, I do wonder
if some of these babies are not deliberately smothered by abusive or
disturbed mothers. I work part-time for a local Children's Aid Society (CPS
in the U.S., I think) and I know of two cases where mothers had abused
babies previously and then reported a baby that died from "overlaying." In
one case, the mother's first baby was removed from her care after she broke
the baby's leg.

While the agency's workers were suspicious, the doctors who did the
autopsies said it is not possible to distinguish between a baby who has been
accidentally rolled on and a baby who has been deliberately smothered. With
not enough evidence to prove abuse, the deaths were classified as accidental
overlaying.

So once you subtract the parents who had been using alcohol or drugs, and
the ones who were deliberately abusing their children - how many actual
cases of parents rolling over on their babies are there?

Teresa Pitman

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