Really interesting piece from fox news about bed sharing/breastfeeding/infant death

[serengeti]

here

watch the whole vid - its v interesting! (and in parts upsetting)

That's so tragic but I can't believe how reactionary the health dept are! Passing laws??? That won't help, esp for something so private - much more helpful to educate better.

Fair play to the reporter towards the end though - stats can be so deceptive, how many cases did they look at? did they compare against other sids stats? what other factors could have swayed things in those homes? etc. I'd be really interested to know if there is a ff / bf difference but that didn't tell me nearly enough.

It won't stop me from bed sharing this time round (having read the cot death leaflets and better educated myself).

I can't watch it, it upsets me too much to even think about it (yes I know I'm pathetic). But I don't think they should pass laws against it because some people don't follow the guidelines and are irresponsible enough to be drunk in bed with their baby or other failures to be sensible.

I co-slept with DS (despite previously being insistent that he would be in his own cot from the off) and always made sure there was no way I could roll on him by sleeping with one arm stretched out above his head - I'd have had to dislocate my shoulder to roll onto him. And I was never drunk either. DH slept elsewhere so that we had enough space for DS to be safe.

Thanks for that very interesting.

I have co slept with all of my 4 while breast feeding for some of the night.

DD slept in a crib next to our bed and I used to lift her into my bed to feed her.

After about 3AM though she was impossible to settle back in the crib so would sleep the rest of the night in bed.

I wasn't keen on co-sleeping but made it as safe as I could by keeping her on the outside of the bed, never between DH and I, used a bedrail, and basically never rolled over.

Ended up with one boob bigger than the other cos I on;y ever fed on one side at night!! (TMI!)

I've bought a bedside cot for baby number 2. I never, ever relaxed and slept properly when DD was in the bed.

I almost didn't watch this as I thought it would be too upsetting but am glad I did now. I would have picked alcohol as the factor all the cases had in common, not formula feeding. What the doctor said about bf sleep positioning makes a lot of sense. Like thumbwitch, the position I slept in made it impossible to roll on top of ds without doing my shoulder major damage.

I co-sleep with ds, now 7 months. I never intended to, was so scared I'd roll onto him. In the hospital, he wouldn't settle unless he was in my arms so a kindly,no ninsense midwife had a balanced chat with me about co-sleeping and showed me the safe position as in the UNICEF leaflet. One of her children had ben v similar and she spent ages with me in the early hours, each night going through breastfeeding positions. Looking back to those first few months, I'd have cracked up if I couldn't co-sleep. Ds would scream, howl and get himself into a right state if we put him in cot or moses basket. Visiting midwives said they had never seen anything like it and all agreed safe co-sleeping was our only real option.

Surely educating mothers is the key rather than passing these laws. Interesting at the end as well when he spoke about how the stats could be so easily manipulated and SIDS deaths attributed to bedsharing. Thanks for posting the link.

There is also a difference between bed sharing and co-sleeping on a chair or sofa (shown on the 'infomercial on that video) which makes suffocation more common.
I'm a bit confused though, as a bed sharing formula feeding mum I also slept as thumbwitch describes so I could not have rolled onto my babies without some superhuman effort so this can't be the cause. I am also aware of a near-miss at my hospital where a breastfeeding mum fell asleep and almost suffocated her baby (with her breast) so it is not impossible for breastfeeders to have this awful event happen to them.
On a related note, most breastfeeding mothers would not be drinking alcohol or taking medication so by definition alcohol & formula feeding would be co-factors.
Not sure I rely on Fox news for my impartial, evidence based news either!!!

I have seen stats on SIDS where they have included deaths of babies in a co-sleeping situation; these should not be included in SIDS stats at all! SIDS is from unknown cause, not from known cause of parent squashing them, falling out of the bed, or suffocating at the foot of the bed!

I found it far more dangerous feeding DS when he was in his own cot, at about 6m - because I was in a chair with him and would be so tired that sometimes I would start to nod off - this is a very real danger, so if I did start to nod off, I would just take him back to bed with me for safety!

when i saw 'Fox news' i knew this would be bad.

Such a sad video.

I think that the interesting thing that came up though, is that all the "bed-sharing" deaths were in formula-fed babies and it was more of a problem in lower socio-economic groups. I wonder if this is because bed-sharers in higher socio-economic groups are more likely to breast feed and perhaps actively chose to bed share, and so followed the safety guidelines?

I agreed with someone in the video who compared the new message from the Milwaukee (sp?) campaign to the abstainence movement - perhaps promoting the safe way to do it would be more effective than driving it underground?

That's a very interesting video, thank you for posting. I thought it was a balanced appraisal of co-sleeping (having dreaded that it would be a one-sided approach, given that it's Fox).

I made the decision to co-sleep when pregnant and co-slept and breastfed for a number of years with DD.

I have a friend involved in Wisconsin politics and will email him the link now, hoping that a knee-jerk reaction, such as the introduction of legislation prohibiting co-sleeping, doesn't become a reality.

Sorry had to pop out for a bit. Seeing as it fox news I think it is quite balanced!

Yes to pass a law is horrific, what a silly idea!

The breastfeeding thing is fascinating though.

(disclamer: as a breastfeeding, co sleeper for at least some of the night)

oopps disclaimer

shouldn't post when in a hurry

Thanks for posting the vid. Like others, I was surprised how balanced it was and that it did appear to come down on the side of co-sleeping & breastfeeding is alright (as per all the other guidance - Unicef etc which Milwaukee is ignoring).

how can it be that millions of countries co-sleep, its meant to be natural??

Then in the West, its meant to kill them?

confused....