Diane Langton wrote:
>
> This baby was bottlefed.  We have a similar case, with a baby placed to
> sleep on a waterbed.  Both babies suffocated, were resuscitated, and are
> very brain-damaged.  The back-to-sleep program has helped to reduce the
> incidence of SIDS, but I'd like to help prevent cases such as these.
> Yes, I've fallen asleep breastfeeding my babies in bed.  But when you see
> the results of these tragedies, you really desire to prevent them.
> Diane, RNC, MSN, PNP

The first baby was found squished *between* his parents wasn't he?  I recall
reading somewhere that someone who researched sleeping habits of mothers with
babies found that they never saw a breastfeeding mother turn her back on her
baby.  If you don't turn your back on your baby it is very hard to squish the
baby between you and your partner.  Perhaps, as well as the well known and
obvious warning against putting babies on waterbeds, mothers who choose not to
breastfeed should be also warned against turning their backs on their babies.
Making the parental bed safer for babies, even newborns, should be the main
focus here and not the shrill warnings against such a normal and relatively safe
and healthy practice.  If you want to discourage putting babies to sleep in
dangerous places the cot/crib should be first on the list.   Far more babies die
in cots, all alone, than die sleeping with their parents.   My third child
stopped breathing on more than one ocassion and because he was sleeping with his
parents we were instantly awakened and able to start him breathing again.  If
the worst had happened, he would have died in his mother's arms at his mother's
breast rather than alone in a cot.  (As a mother that feels more comforting than
knowing your baby died alone without you).  I, too, would like to end all causes
of baby death, but I see separating babies from their mothers as a risk factor
not a safety precaution.  The very many deaths of babies in cots alone and the
relatively few deaths of babies sleeping with their parents does seem to bear
that out.

Gitte
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