Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
News
Original poster

Mother accidentally smothers baby while breastfeeding

87 replies

SomeGuy · 01/12/2009 19:37

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1232265/Breastfeeding-mum-smothers-baby-jet-falling-asleep.html

"A mother accidentally smothered her baby daughter to death on a flight after she fell asleep while breastfeeding.

The four-week-old girl was travelling with her Egyptian mother from Washington DC to Kuwait when the tragedy occurred on November 24.

A mother accidentally smothered her baby daughter to death on a flight after she fell asleep while breastfeeding.

The four-week-old girl was travelling with her Egyptian mother from Washington DC to Kuwait when the tragedy occurred on November 24.

Officers from Scotland Yard's Child Abuse Investigation Team are now dealing with the incident.

The Association of Breastfeeding Mothers said: 'Sitting up in bed while holding your baby is very dangerous, especially if you fall asleep.'

In 2004, Briton Lisa Briggs smothered her baby as they slept less than three years after losing another child to a similar tragedy.

Miss Briggs, 23, fell asleep while feeding five-week-old Keitha and woke in the morning to find her lifeless by her side.

Miss Briggs had lost her four-week-old
daughter Cerese in identical circumstances.
However the Royal College of Midwives said in 2006 there are some benefits for breastfeeding mothers to share a bed with their babies, and a blanket message advising them not to do it could be counter-productive.

Melanie Every, a regional manager for the Royal College, said: 'We know that there are many, many cultures and many, many women who will continue to share beds with their babies, even when they are advised not to do it.

'Now, knowing that, it's important to give them advice on the safest possible way of doing it, rather than just saying don't do it.'

Babies can die of suffocation when their airways are obstructed by lying against their mother - a phenomenon known as 'overlying'.
"

She was in business class.

OP posts:
Peachy · 02/12/2009 12:20
  1. You should never ever sleep with your baby in a chair or on a sofa.
  1. you should never cosleep when so overtired you won't wake, for thatr eason for example it is not usually encouraged in maternity units.
  1. It's a terrible,awfultragedy- i remember Lisa brigg's story- but it is rare, and I trult beleive that following proper rulesfor cosleeping will be far more useful for most mothers than creating a generalfear about it that drives it underground.Do it if you wish (I do), but do it safely.
oranges · 02/12/2009 12:20

I don't think there is a lesson to be had here, is there? It's a tragedy, that's all. Nothing really to do with breastfeeding positions at all.

StealthPolarBear · 02/12/2009 12:22

i do both, sitting up & lying down
please correct me if wrong but i think this is rare
so sad

Peachy · 02/12/2009 12:22

(Oh I never feed sat up at night after I woke to find this almost happening, Dh woke me, Mum had the same thing happen to her. I expect it almost happens a lot).

AvrilH · 02/12/2009 12:24

WHAT has this tragedy got to do with breastfeeding? Does it really matter how this poor woman was caring for her baby when she fell asleep? And how are they sure the baby suffocated? The police spokesman said the death was being treated as unexplained

diddl - lots of people can't do that because their newborns won't tolerate separation

Kathyis12feethighandbites · 02/12/2009 12:24

I feed lying down in bed so if I do fall asleep I won't fall forward and squash him - seems safer to me than sitting up - basically I am feeding in a planned safe-co-sleeping position, though I try to put him back in Moses basket afterwards.

WilfSell · 02/12/2009 12:26

They didn't have to mention breastfeeding however, so I think it is scaremongering. Most mothers whatever they feed, feed sitting up whether in bed or on a sofa. The point is she fell asleep in charge of a tiny baby and smothered her. It is just as likely to have happened in these circs with a bottle in her hand I imagine.

TheShriekingHarpy · 02/12/2009 12:35

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

McDreamyingofawhiteXmas · 02/12/2009 12:39

Business class.....and your point is?

ReneRusso · 02/12/2009 12:41

I saw this story yesterday, and it never occured to me it was scaremongering or anti-breastfeeding. Just a tragic story.

IlanaK · 02/12/2009 12:55

I was the person from the ABM that the journalist MISquoted. I said nothing of the sort about sitting up in bed. What I explained in detail was that this tragedy had nothing to do with breastfeeding. I explained the mechanics of breastfeeding and how it was impossible for a feeding baby with an awake mother to suffocate. If their nose gets blocked, they release the breast to breathe through their mouths. When the reporter tried to tall me their were other cases of this happening, I pointed out that there was plenty of research that showed that sitting up in any location (bed, sofa, armchair, etc) could be risky when very sleepy (regardless of feeding method) as if the mother fell asleep, there was a risk of both dropping the baby and or the baby becoming smothered by loose pillows, duvets etc. Somehow from this, they quoted me as saying that feeding sitting up in bed was dangerous .

I have tried to put a comment on the comment section of the Daily Mail online yesterday where people were angry with the ABM saying what I really told the reporter, but they would not allow it through. Our chairperson has also written to all the papers concered demanding a retraction.

Our condalances go out to the family concerned.

IlanaK · 02/12/2009 12:55

And by the way, it was a Sun journalist I spoke to. The other newspapers have just reprinted it.

ladylush · 02/12/2009 13:02

It is a very sad story I co-sleep with dd because she refuses to sleep at night unless it's next to me. I take all necessary precautions but tbh I have little choice because otherwise I'd be so sleep deprived that I'd probably end up nodding off whilst in a chair - which would probably be more dangerous.

haggisaggis · 02/12/2009 13:06

The business class bit MAY be relevant as it is possible she was actually lying down in one of these bed things they have on some long haul business class flights rather than sitting upright in economy.

chocolaterabbit · 02/12/2009 13:15

Thanks Ilana, that sounds more like it! Hope you get the retraction.

Morloth · 02/12/2009 14:13

Am I the only one not seeing the connection between feeding on a plane and feeding in bed? How did they make the jump so quickly?

sherby · 02/12/2009 14:25

I cannot believe that this could happen to the same women twice, how is that possible?

On another note just googled the second mothers name and came across the freakest childfree forum ever, so v v v weird some of those people

www.refugees.bratfree.com/read.php?2,111378

Elenio · 02/12/2009 14:33

sherby, that website is v. disturbing!

what is wrong with some people???

AvrilH · 02/12/2009 14:33

Interview with Lisa Briggs here:
www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2005/10/04/exclusive-i-killed-two-of-my-babies-11587 5-16205567/

She wasn't bedsharing the second time.

sherby · 02/12/2009 14:36

I have seen her story in a numbe of magazines/papers. I just cannot get my head around something so tragic and rare happening twice to the person.

I was very very surprised that it wasn't more investigated/looked in to

CrosswordGeek · 02/12/2009 14:40

So you're not supposed to sit in bed whilst breastfeeding, but also not supposed to lie down in bed whilst breastfeeding.
How are we supposed to do it in the middle of the night, standing on our heads?!

Kathyis12feethighandbites · 02/12/2009 14:46

it doesn't seem surprising to me that it happened twice to the same person - presumably she just falls asleep more easily & deeply than most people, poor woman.

AvrilH · 02/12/2009 14:48

sherby - do you remember the Sally Clark/Angela Canning/Trupti Patel stories? Their miscarriages of justice probably helped protect Lisa Briggs. It is only very unlikely to have two deaths in one family if you ignore genetic and environmental factors, and anyway even unlikely things tend to happen to somebody.

They generally can't distinguish objectively at autopsy between suffocation and SIDS. It is even possible that these babies were SIDS cases - the first baby who died just after being brought into her bed did not seem to be well, and could not be settled that night; the second baby, a "much smaller" twin, passed away on a sofa.

Anyhow about Lisa Briggs' story being linked to the plane tragedy, and somehow also to breastfeeding.

Poohbearsmom · 02/12/2009 14:53

So unbelievably sad how that poor woman and her family must be feeling right now

sherby · 02/12/2009 14:55

I do remember the Angela Cannings one, so I can't understand how on that occasion she was hung drawn and quartered and another mother can say I suffocated two babies by accident and nobody bats an eyelid?

I know that if a mother was to say oh I dropped two babies and they both died there would surely be alot of faces and questions surely asked?

Anyhow I feel very sorry for this lady on the plane, whatever the circumstances