Dear Friends:
    This new article about bedsharing being associated  with an increased 
risk of SIDS for infants < 11 weeks of age has bothered me  from its first 
mention. Rachel Myr has already alerted us to the need to read  the entire article 
and how interesting it is that physicians can get CMEs from  reading an 
abstract. (I interrupt this to mean that there is something more  going on than meets 
the eye.)
    I got the whole article and have been ploughing  through it. There is a 
lot of statistical description and talk; there are lots  of clever phrases and 
suggestions. 
    My feeling was reinforced by a email dialogue I had  with Linda Smith, 
who is an expert on this topic. Thank you Linda!
    For one thing, in the conclusion, it says  ".......the association with 
bedsharing remains for young infants even if the  mother is a non-smoker or the 
infant is breastfed."   There is no data  collected or shown about 
breastfeeding and no definition of breastfeeding.  (Breastfeeding rates in Scotland are 
notoriously low, although there have been  some pockets of improvement in the 
past few years.) There is reference to "a  strong association between 
breastfeeding mothers who bedshared with young  babies." But where is the data? 
Shouldn't a strong association have lots of  lovely data to go with it?
    There is a puzzling paragraph about the 6 control  infants, whose parents 
perception of "where the baby slept for most of last  sleep" was a separate 
room, but those infants did in fact share the parental bed  at some point 
during last sleep, for between 2 and 5 hours. Then these infants  (the control 
infants) were added to the bedsharing controls who slept all night  in the parents 
room. I don't get it
        Bed-sharing was not  associated with death........at least not much. 
Babies could spend some time in  their parents bed as part of their last 12 
hours alive; but then, their parents  probably brushed their teeth as part of 
the last 12 hours, and that wasn't  associated with infant death either.
And what really  happened with the 6 control infants? The parent's perceived 
that their baby was  sleeping in a separate room, but the infants did at some 
time in the last 12  hours, share the parental bed. Both these things can be 
true....why not conclude  that sleeping in a separate room for part of the last 
12 hours was associated  with death?
        There always seems to be a  nasty article around the time of World 
Breastfeeding Week. Such articles are  basically saying that breastfeeding is 
risky and that mothers and babies  together is risky. This is so 
counterintuitive that I am staggered by the fact  that such a thing can even be questioned. 
Why does oxytocin release make mothers  sleepy and why do the hormones in human 
milk make the baby sleepy, if they  weren't supposed to sleep together? Where 
would we all be if mothers were bad  for babies?
    I am glad to know that  tobacco is not good  for babies, and that 
sleeping supine when alone is best for babies, and that  infants shouldn't sleep on 
waterbeds or couches, or with drunk/stoned parents. I  just can't, in my heart 
or in my gut accept that bedsharing is dangerous for  healthy mothers and 
healthy babies.
    warmly,
    
Nikki Lee RN, MS, Mother of 2, IBCLC, CCE
Maternal-Child Adjunct  Faculty Union Institute and University
Film Reviews Editor, Journal of Human  Lactation
www.breastfeedingalwaysbest.com

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