I have given this infant sleep thing a lot of thought because,
unfortunately, I am scheduled to do a talk on night time parenting next
month for a group of parents.

It seems totally illogical to me that babies are safest when left alone but
they need pacifiers to keep them alive.

Science (statistical analysis) is a tool. It is not the be all and the end
all....especially when it flies in the face of reason.

If our species required pacifiers for safe infant sleep...how might we have
survived without them? If cosleeping is dangerous then how does one explain
the clear preference for it, the world over?

It seems to me that this tendency to use one sort of "science" to dictate
what we will or will not do has gone too far. I would dearly love to hear
the perspectve of an anthropologist (Kathy D.?) on this. Anthropology is
science too, you know. It is a perspective that is sorely needed by the AAP
and anyone else who is going to make reccomendations about what humans as a
species should or should not do with their infants.

When I get asked about this cosleeping thing I am going to state the facts.
"It has always been done, it is clearly a survival mechanism for the
species, there is some new statistical analysis out there that would
indicate otherwise at first sight, we must be careful not to jump to
conclusions.....

Susan Keith-Hergert RN, MS, CPN, IBCLC
mom, nurse, LC, doula and longtime student of family studies.

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