On Thu, 6 May 1999, gima wrote:

> Here is the Reuters article.  It is, of course, selective in itself.
> The research paper can be found on the Pediatrics electronic pages.

No kidding.  I note that the actual paper only documents the deaths
and comments that the increased rate is probably due to an increase
in bed sharing.  While the section on overlaying reports that it is
increasingly a problem, the conclusion section says nothing about
co-sleeping.  There were 180 deaths by "overlaying" in the 18-year
period studied, an average of 10 a year.

As a parent who practices co-sleeping, the usual response that people
have when they learn about our sleeping arrangements is either, "Aren't
you afraid of smothering the baby?" or "That's dangerous, I know of a
woman who smothered her baby that way."  When challenged, most of these
"I know of..." cases turn out to be urban legend type friend-of-a-friend
stories that cannot be traced to source.  Some are actual cases, however,
I have yet to find one that did not involve impairment of the adult
involved, usually by drugs, including alcohol.

The authors of this study readily admit that many of the cases were
reported wrongly, and when confronted by a surprising number of
crib-related deaths, investigated further since the safety standards
in place for cribs today are supposed to prevent these deaths.  They
did not similarly investigate the overlaying deaths.  How many of
these deaths may have been SIDS deaths that were not investigated
because ignorant investigators concluded that because the baby was
in bed with parents ("an obviously unsafe practice") that the baby
must have been smothered.  How many involved imapairment of the adult
(including by prescription narcotics given for pain relief following
cesarean birth)?

The overall impression I got from this study is "leaving babies
unattended, including while they are sleeping, is inherently
dangerous," since nearly all the deaths resulted when the babies
were alone.

Mary Conner
Lactivist and aspiring IBCLC

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