Please, I know it's boring, but we have to get our facts straight.

I am responding to Mary Renard's post - days ago, but I have had ISP probs.

It is *no good* comparing deaths of babies in cribs with deaths of babies
in adult bed, whether you have the rate or not.  It's like comparing deaths
in the bath (from drowning) to deaths in the kitchen ( from ingesting
cleaning fluid). The circumstances in one place could not occur in the
other.

This is what the Commission is saying about adult beds: The babies died
*because they were there* and not elsewhere,  because (they say)  it is not
safe or suitable, and because it is a different place from the crib.

>without knowing the *rate* for the population.  Note that in this study,
>only raw numbers are used:  what are the RATES?  How many babies were in
>their parents' beds?  How many were in cribs?  What proportion died in each?
>(um, well, the rates aren't reported because - well, the 'researchers' don't
>know....)  Even before you start sorting out for the cause of death, I am
>willing to bet money that the rate of death is higher in cribs.

I wouldn't bet on it!  In fact, I would expect that 'furniture' deaths, the
deaths caused by the fact the baby was entrapped, or suffocated on the
mattress (as in water bed), would be at a much higher rate in the adult
bed.

Why? because a crib is designed  and made to prevent accidental entrapment
or suffocation of a baby, whereas an adult bed is not.

Also, the 'non-furniture deaths', the deaths of babies from suffocation or
smothering by an adult will be zero in cribs, because an adult can't be
there to do that.

The only answer to this whole thing is not to drag in SIDS, or count the
overall deaths in cribs, or compare deaths in cribs with deaths in adult
beds - that is irrelevant. SIDS did not enter the Commission's figures.

Instead we say, 'yes - each of those deaths is a tragedy, and we do not
know enough about the way those babies were cared for while they were in
the adult bed. Let's make sure we can make co-sleeping safe, which is so
beneficial to breastfeeding and all other aspects of parenting, and not
make stupid bans that frighten parents unnecessarily.'

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc Newcastle upon Tyne UK

who is probably beginning to bore the pants off everyone about this

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