Becky wrote:
They're little fold-up beds that can go in mom & dad's bed (or
wherever) to keep a newborn safe.  You can see them on their web site at
www.snugglenest.com.

Laura wrote:
I also saw the Snuggle Nest at LLLI. I can't see how it would be any more of
a smother hazard than the little plastic boxes the hospitals roll babies
around in .... they may be useful for some of the
hospitals which are worried about "allowing" co-sleeping.

Dear all,
What do you all think about the potential for the baby to end up
*underneath* this thing? The specifications state that the 'nest' is
positoned between the adult pillows and the baby sleeps at parents' face
height. Mums are supposed to pull the baby down the bed to the open end of
the 'nest' to breastfeed, then push the baby back up to the top again to
sleep.  This raises two concerns for me.
1. First issue concerns the practicality of keeping the baby on the base
while breastfeeding and ensuring that s/he is pushed back up again. I'd
think it would be very easy for baby to snuggle in to mum, fall asleep,
slide off the base, and end up underneath it.  My own rule of thumb (formed
on the basis of my bed-sharing research) is that the fewer 'things' there
are in the bed, the safer a bed-sharing baby will be.
2. Secondly, by encouraging parents to locate the baby at parents' face
height, I think the product will inadvertently 'train' parents in unsafe
bed-sharing practices in the long-run. Those who remember posts about my
research from several months ago will remember discussion of the
'instinctive' position in which breastfeeding mothers sleep with their
babies. This product would prohibit that position, and entrain parents to
have their babies faces in between the pillows -- when the baby outgrows the
product, or parents decide to bed-share without it, how safe does that leave
the baby?

So, on the face of things it seems a nice idea, but one that could have
undesirable consequences. I think these issues would need to be investigated
carefully before recommending this product to parents.

Regards
Helen
_______________
Dr Helen L. Ball
Parent-Infant Sleep Lab,
Department of Anthropology, University of Durham UK

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