Kathy-- "Re the woman who dropped her baby while trying to get out of bed to 
go to
the bathroom --
(1) Is the baby OK?  Inquiring minds want to know.
(2) It seems to me this is not a 'co-sleeping' issue at all.  It is an issue
of teaching a new mother how to manuever when she has a newborn"

(1) Yes.  Apparently no harm done.
(2) No, it's not a co-sleeping issue.  I think it was just the impetus to 
look at larger liability issues, and our manager feels co-sleeping is a major 
liability issue.  The woman was trying to maneuver out of bed with the baby 
to put the baby in the crib so that she could get to the bathroom.

Helen-- Thank you so much for directing me to your policy; this is very 
helpful, and I will share it with my manager.  I know I will be told, 
however, that the legal climate in the U.K. is different than the U.S.

For the other thousands of you out there-- Aren't there any hospitals in the 
U.S. who have policies on this?  Are there other hospitals that prohibit 
co-sleeping?  What do Baby-Friendly Hospitals do?  For my institution it may 
take an outcry from women who are assertive enought to refuse to let the 
nurse put the baby in the crib, but here those women are few and far between. 
 In the meantime, I know we're going to have more babies sent back to the 
nursery at night, more pacifier use and more supplementing, which makes me 
hideously depressed.

Becky Krumwiede, RN, IBCLC
Appleton, Wisconsin

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