This morning I woke up to this terrible headline in the morning paper-
yesterday a mother sat in the back seat of the family car, breastfeeding
her one month old son, when her husband for some reason lost control of the
car and collided head on into a jeep coming from the other direction- the
baby was thrown thru the front windshield and killed-
We have a law requiring the use of carseats for babies and toddlers,but
like everywhere else, people don't always obey the law. We all are familiar
with those situations in which the baby is crying or screaming and the only
thing he wants is to be nursed- and the thought of "it won't happen to me"
takes over and the baby is out of the carseat "only for a few minutes"-
I still have goosebumps from this article.
Perhaps we should, as breastfeeding counselors, LC's etc, include
mentioning the importance of the use of carseats, and the option of pulling
over to the side of the road or to a gas station etc to feed- I would even
say that to have the baby cry/scream and wait a few minutes is preferable
and less dangerous that the above mentioned possibility- a nightmare to
live with for the rest of the parent's lives- by the way, they and the
three year old, who were all seatbelted- had minor injuries.
Sorry to be the bearer of such depressing news, but I feel that we have an
obligation to react to things like this.
Hoping the rest of the day is more uplifting.
Jennie in Israel

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