Following the recent discussions of perceived risks of co-sleeping, I
searched my state government's web site for infant mortality statistics.
The following is a hyperlink to that site.  If your email program can open
it up, you will see that the table notations in parentheses are links to
charts.  You can save these to a disk and read them with Adobe Acrobat
reader.

--- cut / paste from web site ---

http://www.hs.state.az.us/plan/1997ahs/2/2c.htm#infant

2C.  AGE-SPECIFIC MORTALITY INFANT MORTALITY

Infant mortality is defined as the number of deaths within the first year of
life. The infant mortality rate (IMR) is computed as the number of infant
deaths in a calendar year per 1,000 live births recorded for the same
period.

In 1997, 542 infants died before reaching their first birthday, for a record
low infant mortality rate (IMR) of 7.2 deaths per 1,000 live births in that
year (Table 2C-1). Arizona's 1996 to 1997 decline in infant mortality was
due to a decreased rate of deaths in the neonatal period (from birth to 28
days of age, NMR), while the rate of postneonatal deaths (between 28 days
and 365 days after birth, PNMR) was unchanged. For the second time since
1970, the 1996 and 1997 IMRs for Arizona were higher than the preliminary
U.S. rates (Table 2C-1 , Table 8C-2). Fifty out of every 100 infant deaths
in Arizona in 1997 occurred during the first six days of life (Table 5E-15)

--- end of cut / paste ---

Summary of a portion of 1997 statistics from Table 2C-5:

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome  42,  Unintentional Injury  18,  Pneumonia /
Influenza  17,  Diseases of Heart  10,  Infectious & Parasitic Diseases  31,
Homicide  6.  The chart also counts deaths from "certain conditions in the
perinatal period" and "some congenital anomalies".  There is a final
category
called "all other causes" & the total is 71.  I would have to assume that if
there were any infant deaths in Arizona from "overlying" or "smothering in
the parents' bed" or "found underneath mother", etc, they would have to be
in this number of 71.  I think I need more information.  They don't count
what
I want to know.  I couldn't find *anything* related to how or what a baby is
fed.

Check your own state's web site for similar statistics to back up your talks
with clients about this outrageous warning against co-sleeping.

Phyllis Adamson, BA, IBCLC
Private Practice - Glendale, AZ
[log in to unmask]

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