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From:
Diane Wiessinger <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:24:49 -0400
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"I'm looking for a reference for the following. Can anyone help me out?
"In 2001 2,236 infants died from SIDS in the USA and 64 of these babies 
were bedsharing with their parents.""

If you find it, just remember that it still doesn't tell us anything.  A parallel story:

A few years ago I heard an ad on the car radio that nearly caused me to drive off the road:  "Seven out of ten children who die in car crashes are improperly buckled in."  It wasn't the statistic that upset me, it was the implied conclusion, when in fact no conclusion could be drawn.  If 9 out of ten children overall are routinely improperly buckled in, but only 7 out of 10 in fatal crashes were improperly buckled, then children are actually more likely to survive if they're not buckled in.  If only 2 out of ten children overall are improperly buckled in, but a whopping 7 of 10 who die in crashes are improperly buckled, then yes, it's a good idea to buckle your child in.  If 7 out of 10 are routinely improperly buckled and 7 out of ten who die are improperly buckled, then the safety procedures make no difference one way or the other and you can do as you choose.  Without knowing the rest of the story, there *is* no story.  The ad wasn't on the air very long.

Those 64 bedsharing deaths become horrifyingly definitive if, say, there were only 64 babies who co-slept that year!  So what you really need is 1) How many bedshare and *don't* die of SIDS, 2) how many bedshare and *do* die of SIDS, 3) how many sleep alone and *don't* die of SIDS, and 4) how many sleep alone and *do* die of SIDS.  And as far as I know we simply don't have those figures - and maybe never will - because they're too slippery to get.

That said, there's a fabulous chapter by Jim McKenna in the new Hale and Hartmann "textbook of human lactation" that makes a totally solid case for bedsharing.  But I don't think we can get there with US statistics... yet.

Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC, LLLL  Ithaca, NY  USA
www.normalfed.com



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