Skip to main content
Skip to main navigation
Skip to talk navigation

Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Saved Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Flip

News

Baby dies whilst breastfeeding - did anyone else read this?

19 replies

sweetkitty · 10/02/2006 17:27

In yesterdays Sun there was a story about a mother who's 3 day old baby boy dies whilst breastfeeding. It stated she was feeding him on the sofa at 2.30am and suffocated him with her breast as he was too weak to struggle due ti previous feeding difficulties.

Strikes me as odd, unless she fell asleep and suffocated him accidentally as you would know he had stopped feeding. Tragic story though.

OP posts:

Report

WestCountryLass · 10/02/2006 21:04

He was quite severely dehydrated and did not have the strength to move his head away, this was a night feed and maybe she nodded off for a few minutes?

Poor Mum, and poor wee dot, bless his soul

SorenLorensen · 10/02/2006 21:21

I can't understand how a 3 day old baby managed to get so dehydrated without anyone noticing. Where was that poor woman's support? I haven't seen the story so don't know the details but if she had him in hospital, why was she allowed to go home without feeding properly established - and if she had him at home, why wasn't there a community midwife keeping tabs on him? Tragic story.

moondog · 10/02/2006 21:24

EHHHHHHHHH?????????????

Hulababy · 10/02/2006 21:24

There was a thread on this yesterday here Includes a link to the story too.

chickaboo · 10/02/2006 21:26

Was talking about this with a friend today, both of us have breastfed 2 babies and couldn't understand it, my friend thought yes she had fell asleep. I don't know but yes it's tragic all the same, I'm not going to say I have never fallen asleep breastfeeding beacuse I have and I know that plenty of us do. So sad can't imagine howthe mother must feel.

Hulababy · 10/02/2006 21:28

This is the story

So sad

cece · 10/02/2006 21:28

I have experience of being discharged without feeding being properly established. They can't wait to get rid of you ime

SorenLorensen · 10/02/2006 21:30

I just can't see it - when they drop off the breast they lose contact with it - and I'm well blessed in the nork department and have often fallen asleep feeding - sitting up and lying down - I just can't visualise how this happened.

moondog · 10/02/2006 21:31

If you read the link (while suspending belief in anything reported in the Daily Mail) it is apparent that the woman was not right.....two older kids taken away and put into care and another born since.

chickaboo · 10/02/2006 21:40

Just read right to the bottom of the link and the woman from the NCT says it is highly unlikely to have happened if the mother was awake but like I said before plenty of us do fall asleep. Also saw the bit about the other children being adopted... not sure what to think now? Did anyone hear of this when it actually happened? wasn't it in 2004?

coppertop · 10/02/2006 21:57

Sadly I can easily believe that the baby was dehydrated at 3 days without anyone noticing. I had a terrible time in the hospital trying to convince the MWs that ds1 needed a doctor as he hadn't fed at all since he was born. They just kept trotting out the old chestnut that babies will feed when they are hungry. Ds1 was 3 days old when a sympathetic MW calle the doctor down to the ward. Ds1 was tube-fed for the next 3 days. The SCBU staff actually refused to release him back to the ward because they felt that ds1 hadn't been properly monitored y the ward staff.

Ds1 was due to be discharged from the hospital on the day that the doctor finally examined him. If I hadn't made a fuss they would quite happily have let me take him home dehydrated.

RedZuleika · 10/02/2006 22:01

I'm pretty large chested too - and I know I've dozed off sitting up in bed feeding during a day 9 growth spurt - and I can't see how this happened either.

I can see how she was discharged from hospital though without feeding being established. That happened with me and the poor wee girl was dehydrated with depressed fontanelles within two days of discharge. I did have an independent midwife, though, who - having tried to get a good latch - sent my husband out for nipple shields.

chickaboo · 10/02/2006 22:14

I don't think everyones knows about depressed fontanelles, I always regularly checked and gave water/ breastfed if necessary.

Things like this really play on my mind and that is why I hate watching the news and hearing about such sad stories.

WestCountryLass · 10/02/2006 22:41

I am not convinced her having older kids who were adopted bears that much relevence, they were adopted immediately after their births, maybe she was really young when she got PG? I would not like to make assumptions about that.

chickaboo · 10/02/2006 22:53

I thought that too about the fact she may have been a lot younger. Newspapers love to find out things like that and turns things around.

kittyfish · 11/02/2006 10:48

I had no idea about depressed fontanelles . But I do know that SIDS can happen to a baby in a car seat, or in its mothers arms not just a baby in a bed. If it was relatively dark and she thought her baby had just fallen asleep she may not have noticed her baby had turned blue or that it had stopped breathing. I still have to put a hand on my dd's chest to make sure she is breathing some nights and she is 10mo now. again.

It is horrible and after the ghastly cot death mothers being sent to prison over that fuck heads 'expert' testimony I think we should all be very careful of judging this woman.

cupcakes · 11/02/2006 10:56

I can see how the mum thinks he must have suffocated. I remember that when I was first feeding ds I would hold the bulk of the boob back away from his face as otherwise it covered his nostrils. I didn't have this with dd because she was a much bigger baby but I believe ds would have really struggled to breathe otherwise. He was 6lb5oz at birth and did struggle with feeding initially.

kittyfish · 11/02/2006 15:11

Erm, the cot death mothers wern't ghastly, by the way. Sorry for such bad english.

MarmaladeSun · 11/02/2006 23:32

I really hate it when people jump to conclusions. As I said in the other thread, this almost happened to me with DD2. Her first feed, after she was born was taking place in my bedroom amidst DH, DD1 and DS, and 2 midwives. I put DD2 to the breast and she settled down happily. When I glanced down at her she was blue...right down to her hands. It was only a very short while, and although she was wide awake she didn't struggle at all, and she was a healthy 9lb 6oz.
I find others' comments about how this is 'odd' and not ringing true really offensive. It can happen and does happen.

Flip

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.