There was an interesting article in today's paper (6/21) by Kevin Lamb of
the Dayton Ohio Daily News.  I'll quote parts of it.

"The limited research on premature babies who share a bed with their
siblings suggests it's more than just comforting to stay close with their
buddies from the womb as soon as practical after birth.  They also gain
weight faster, begin maintaining body heat earlier and nurse sooner on
more nutritious breast milk, says Linda Lutes, an infant-development
specialist and the country's foremost advocate of what she calls
co-bedding.

"It all makes sense, certainly.  They stay warmer together, and if the
companionship keeps them calmer, Lutes says "they'll sleep for longer
periods of time so they're able to grow more."

"As a result, twins, triplets and other multiple-birth babies can leave
the hospital sooner.  That has been the experience at Dayton's Children's
Medical Center in the year it has been co-bedding.  It costs less, the
babies are heathier and everybody's happier.  "Nobody likes their baby to
cry," Lutes says.

So why is this such a new concept?  Swedish hospitals have been bunking
multiples together as soon as they can breathe on their own for more than
a generation, but Lutes began introducing the idea to this country only
eight or nine years ago, and other Western countries were even slower to
start.

"There have been two main concerns, which still prevail in many newborn
intensive-care units.  One is that it would be too easy to mix up the
babies' medications if they were in the same bed.  The other is that the
close proximity would make them more susceptible to infection, which is
especially dangerous for a preemie.

"It's easy enough to keep the medications straight by color-coking
everything, Lutes says, and it's turning out that preemies who share a
bed have a lower infection rate "because everybody is so careful."  Which
leaves one other obstacle.

"People aren't sure if this works," Lutes says.  She understands that.
Doctors don't tend to take anything on faith, and there isn't much
cientific data from her three years of research.  the first study, at
Good Samaritan hospital in cincinnati (Ohio) shimply showed sharing beds
wasn't harmful.  The second study established success in growht rates,
body heat and breast-feeding, but it involved only seven sets of pre-term
twins in Sweden.

"The biggest question is how early it's safe to put the preemies in the
same bed. Lutes says as soon as they're breathing without a ventilator
and don't have a catheter in the umbilical line, which could cause
serious bleeding if it came loose.
---------
Neat info isn't it and it makes a lot of sense. There's more to the
article but it's mostly about a specific set of triplets in Dayton with a
darling full color photo of the 3 girls in bed together.  They were born
prematurely April 2.

Warmly,
Pat Bucknell
Avon Lake OH


___________________________________________________________________
Get the Internet just the way you want it.
Free software, free e-mail, and free Internet access for a month!
Try Juno Web: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj.

             ***********************************************
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html