Greetings, all!
This was on Medscape today. Enjoy!
Pamela Morrison IBCLC
Rustington, England
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Breast-Feeding Link Should Figure Into Bed-Sharing Advice
Nancy Fowler Larson
October 19, 2010 — The value of breast-feeding
should be considered before advising mothers not
to share their beds with their infants, according
to a British study published online October 18
and in the November issue of Pediatrics.
Nearly half of all English infants sleep in a
parent's bed at times; one fifth does so
regularly during their first year. The practice
has been linked to sudden infant death syndrome,
and many professionals and organizations,
including the American Pediatric Society, advise against it.
However, bed sharing is also known to support breast-feeding.
"Both cross-sectional epidemiological and sleep
laboratory studies showed close links between the
frequency and duration of breastfeeding and the
practice of bed sharing," write Peter Blair, PhD,
Community-Based Medicine and Social Medicine,
University of Bristol, United Kingdom, and colleagues.
The researchers sought to further the knowledge
about bed sharing and breast-feeding through a
longitudinal, population-based study using data
gathered in 1991 and 1992 for the Avon
Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. To
that end, they examined bed-sharing and
breast-feeding habits during 5 periods (0 - 2
months, 6 - 8 months, 17 - 20 months, 30 - 33
months, and 42 - 45 months) in 7447 children.
Patterns of bed sharing were broken down into 4
unique groups: parents who never shared their
beds with infants (66%), those whose babies slept
with them in their beds only in infancy (13%),
those who shared their bed with a child only
after the first year (15%), and parents who
shared their beds consistently for 4 years (6%).
Bed-Sharing Associated With Breast-Feeding
The results showed that mothers who shared a bed
with their newborns were better educated and of a
higher socioeconomic status, and that those whose
children routinely slept in their beds during the
first 15 months of life reported a significantly
greater incidence of breast-feeding, among other findings:
all 3 categories of bed sharing had an important
relationship with breast-feeding at 12 months (P
< .001), whether the bed sharing occurred late
(odds ratio [OR], 1.72; 95% confidence interval
[CI], 1.36 - 2.18), early (OR, 2.36; 95% CI, 1.87
- 2.97), or during the entire 4 years (OR, 5.29; 95% CI, 4.05 - 6.91);
29% of the mothers who slept with their infants
at 0 to 2 months (251/872 mothers) had university
degrees compared with 14% of mothers (888/6464)
whose babies slept separately during that period (P < .0001); and
the finding for education lessened for those who
shared a bed with their 6- to 8-month-old-infants
(17% vs 15%; P = .17) and there was a negative
relationship with education for those sleeping
with their 17- to 20-month-olds (11% vs 16%; P < .0001).
Because bed-sharing mothers of newborns were
found to be better educated and more
socioeconomically advantaged, their babies are at
lower risk for sudden infant death syndrome
because they will likely follow other infant
safety guidelines, the researchers reasoned.
Therefore, more lives could be saved if
preventive messages focused on behaviors other than sharing a bed.
"Given the likely beneficial effects of bed
sharing on breastfeeding rates and duration, risk
reduction messages to prevent sudden infant
deaths would be targeted more appropriately to
unsafe infant care practices such as sleeping on
sofas, bed sharing after the use of alcohol or
drugs, or bed sharing by parents who smoke," the authors write.
Limitations to the study include the fact that
using 5 time periods reduced the number of
infants who could be studied (of the 14,062
mother–infant pairs on whom data was collected,
only 53% [7447] provided information for all time
points). In addition, most longitudinal studies
have a larger dropout rate for socioeconomically
disadvantaged participants — a situation that
could skew the results toward those of higher socioeconomic status.
Regardless, the bottom line of the study results
is a simple one: "Advice on whether bed sharing
should be discouraged needs to take into account
the important relationship with breastfeeding," the authors write.
The UK Medical Research Council, The Wellcome
Trust, and the University of Bristol provided
core support for the Avon Longitudinal Study of
Parents and Children. The Foundation for the
Study of Infant Deaths supported this specific
study. The study authors have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
Pediatrics. Published online October 18, 2010.
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