Hi Lisa,
I had a look at the study yesterday and I must say I was very surprised by
the small numbers and I think that this is the core issue. The researchers
used what data they had available. Scotland is not a big country and
therefore the numbers were small and they also have pretty ordinary
breastfeeding rates and so when it came to breastfeeding and SIDS the
numbers of breastfeeding (not defined and this could be important) babies
who died in bed with an adult was very, very small.....11 in fact, and yet
there were some strong statements made in the paper about breastfeeding,
bedsharing and SIDS. The study also included 4 babies who died elsewhere
(cot and another 1 who they don't know where the baby died) as breastfeeding
bedsharing deaths in the analysis because they had bedshared sometime in the
last sleep. Not only does this seem very strange to me but I question what
impact this might have had on the data analysis and whether the conclusions
might be different without these additional 5 cases?
Those are the questions I have after reading the paper. It's not rejecting
the research because I don't like what the research says but questioning the
study design and wondering why it was done the way it was done.
Karleen Gribble
Australia


> Perhaps the study is flawed (what study isn't?), but there isn't any
> conspiracy to scare people away from breastfeeding. Along with Jane Scott
> (originally from Perth, Australia), he teaches medical students about
> breastfeeding by bringing dozens of breastfeeding women into tutorials.
>
> As breastfeeding supporters, we need to be careful of accepting everything
> that appears to support breastfeeding and rejecting everything that we
don't
> like to hear.
>
> Lisa Amir
> MBBS, MMed, IBCLC in Melbourne, Australia
>

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