I have found my issue of _Mothering_ with the co-sleeping and smoking
articles.  (It reached the top of my "filing system" while I was rummaging
on my study floor for something else.)

The New Zealand researchers found that they were unable to lower SIDS rates
much amongst Maoris with the back-to-sleep campaign, although this sleep
position strongly affected SIDS rates among other groups.  They examined
the data and concluded that the problem was that around 2/3 of Maori
mothers (more than those in the other ethnic groups studied) smoked during
pregnancy.  Here is the crux paragraph:

"An in-depth examination of the New Zealand study found that bedsharing
appeared to be a significant risk factor for sudden death only if the
mother had smoked during her pregnancy.  Smoking among fathers had no
effect.  Moreover, there was a strong interaction between bedsharing and
smoking, with each factor by itself being relatively small (about double
the risk).  When both factors were present, however, the risk was five
times higher than when neither factor was present.  This effect was present
in all racial groups."

So, they conclude that smoking in pregnancy is a contra-indication for
co-sleeping.  Their numbers differ from Helen Ball's where the risk was
12-fold not 5-fold, but this might be explained if, for example, the UK
parents were less likely to breastfeed (*if* breastfeeding is somewhat
protective of bed-sharing infants of mothers who smoked during pregnancy),
or if the UK parents but not the Maori parents intensified the risk by
smoking in the bedroom or in the baby's presence.  And they did find, which
I had forgotten, that once they looked closely, the problem was not tied to
Maori ethnicity but simply to smoking, which is itself correlated to
ethnicity in New Zealand.

http://www.mothering.com/9-0-0/html/9-4-0/taylor.shtml
The link is this one.  (Heather, thank you for that other link -- it was to
another article in the same issue.)

So, I guess I will have to do as Helen Ball suggested, except that I can't
tell mothers that the risk goes away if they stop smoking now -- they need
to know that if they smoked in pregnancy, their baby is at high risk of
SIDS while co-sleeping, and that nobody knows how to lower that risk, or if
it can be lowered.
As Arly said, how very sad to be faced with a choice between the heightened
risk of SIDS vs. certain diminishment of vital intimacy w/mother.

Thank you all very much for your insights and accounts of how you handle
this topic.  I'm so glad I asked.

Elise

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