What a distressing spot parents are in.

I was sharing my ideas about co-sleeping with a mom who was sleep-deprived
and who was sitting up holding her baby so that he would sleep.  She said
that her doctor had warned her against having her baby in bed with her.

She was an intelligent, well educated woman and I was trying logic and
history to ease her mind.  After a while she said, "I understand what you
are saying, but I would rather that my baby die from SIDS caused by
isolated sleep than to die in my bed from whatever cause. If he was in the
crib, it wouldn't be directly my fault."

Isn't it terrible that mothers are being forced to "choose" the way their
babies will die, just because we have grown so far from the natural human
condition?

This same mentality is at work in the hospital setting where birthing and
post-birth practices continue, regardless of the long-term hazards to the
baby's health. It even begins before the mother enters the hospital with
ultra-sounds and other such tests.  We belive that with tests and
technology we can have perfect babies and no one will die (or sue).  We
compromise the health of all babies to save the lives of a few. And we will
maintain the lives of all babies if we can, regardless of the quality of
the life they will experience.

Better force an infant to sleep alone even if that is not her bent, feeling
abandoned, and left with a insatiable longing that she will not understand
when she is 45, than risk her  sleeping with her mother, as most of the
rest of human-kind does.

We feel so superior to "everyone else" with all of our technology and
compartmentalizing of our people. And we use threats and fears to make sure
that parents comply.  And this all in the name of "Health Care."

"We must always choose between risk and risk."

Pat Gima, IBCLC
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
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