DR. McKenna said when I heard him Saturday, the distinction needs to me made between co-sleeping and co-bedding. The two are not always the same. So the statistics often show something like 62% of babies who died of SIDS were co-bedding but actually they were co-sleeping or vise versa. That babies have evolved but beds haven't. So when a death is reported in the statistics no distinction has been made up to this point as whether the baby was sleeping on a safe surface. Prone or supine, was baby sleeping with a parent or a grandparent, was baby sleeping on the sofa or in a water bed, or any other unsafe environment, with a 16 year old mother who had no prenatal care, and doesn't know that that baby is not a teddy bear, Smokers should not co-bed or co-sleep. In fact it's probably not wise to have anyone who smokes in the same bed. What about alcohol, drugs each. Or is this a mother who got good prenatal care , 35 years old and made a decision to sleep with her baby not because there is no other place for her baby to sleep but because she believes it is best for her baby. One of the points that I thought was so good was that he pointed out that both parents if sleeping with baby need to acknowledge that the baby is in the bed. What he meant by this was that they both know in their minds that a baby is sharing sleep with them in the same way that one knows in the middle of the night where the edge of the bed is and so we don't fall out of bed. This issue makes me think of how the home birth statistics were interpreted. All out of hospital births grouped together. -----Original Message----- From: Automatic digest processor <[log in to unmask]> To: Recipients of LACTNET digests <[log in to unmask]> Date: Thursday, May 06, 1999 12:03 AM Subject: LACTNET Digest - 5 May 1999 (#1999-186) *********************************************** 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