Baby smothered on airplane - Page 2

[RomanGoddess]

The article says that the mother fell asleep while breastfeeding her child in a business class seat. I don't know how many of you have flown United transatlantic business class but you get a bed to lie down in. It's a narrow bed and certainly NOT a safe bed to fall asleep with a baby in, breastfeeding or not.

So no, I don't think breastfeeding caused the death. I think co-sleeping with a baby on an airplane bed designed for one person caused the death.

[annie_noah]

Originally Posted by Claire and Boys

Has there actually been an autopsy performed? Because otherwise I feel it's irresponsible for the media to be reporting this as a death caused by breastfeeding, co sleeping or whatever until it is known for sure that was the cause.

Friends of ours lost a very young baby a few years ago. Baby was ill with a chest infection, dad took baby downstairs to give mum a break as she wasn't sleeping, he fell asleep with baby on the sofa. When he woke up the baby was dead in his arms.

Of course it looked as if it was a smothering death, co sleeping on sofa not safe, but when the autopsy results came out it was found that the baby did NOT die from smothering but from the illness.

In Ontario, if a baby dies while sleeping with a parent, that is listed as the cause of death. It doesn't matter if there were other possible reasons. It is an "unsafe sleep environment". Period. If the baby dies sleeping in what they consider to be a safe sleep environment (crib with tight fitting sheet and light baby blanket only with infant sleeping on its back) then they would look for other causes and if none is found then call it SIDS. It is ridiculous logic. I've complained about it at length before.

[NewDirections]

Originally Posted by AllyRae

Babies can die while breastfeeding or bottlefeeding and it will have absolutely nothing to do with the fact the baby was eating. It's a tragedy, but the truth of the matter is NOBODY knows what happened... The baby was very young (4 weeks old) and flying on a transcontinential flight. Any number of things could have happened--the baby might have had a heart condition that went undetected, etc.

It's just such a sad sad tragedy. That poor mother. She probably already blames herself and then one day she'll come across an article blaming her as well.

A friend of mine on Facebook is a volunteer firefighter. A few days ago he posted that a mother fell asleep while breastfeeding and smothered her baby. Her baby died My friend transported the baby's heart to another hospital so that it could be transplanted. I was really offended by his wall post. Why is it necessary to mention that the mother was breastfeeding? Falling asleep and smothering a baby could happen with formula feeding as well. It just made me angry that he mentioned breastfeeding because it makes it seem that breastfeeding is partially responsible for the baby's death

[annie_noah]

Originally Posted by NewDirections

Why is it necessary to mention that the mother was breastfeeding? Falling asleep and smothering a baby could happen with formula feeding as well. It just made me angry that he mentioned breastfeeding because it makes it seem that breastfeeding is partially responsible for the baby's death

That is exactly why I posted about this here. There are lots of other things that could be said about the situation, but to me the lactivism element of it is that there is no reason to mention breastfeeding here at all.

[sapphire_chan]

The only article I saw on this was "breastfeeding not to blame in infant death" or some such.

[marrymeflyfree]

A similar tragedy occurred on the airline I work for a few years ago. Every year during our recurrent training, they take a few incidents that happened in the previous year and dissect them to learn from the experiences - this was one of them. A couple with an 8 week old as well as an older child were in first class on a domestic flight. The mom was nursing the baby in a sling while watching a movie, and listening through noise-canceling headsets. If you aren't familiar with them, those things pretty well eliminate all noise except what's coming through the line. At one point she looked down, and her baby was blue. The crew did CPR and got the baby breathing again, barely, but the baby died that day at the hospital they were taken to after landing.

It's been a few years and I don't remember all of the details...but remember wondering at the time if the sling-headset combination might have been at the root of it. If one is nursing hands-free, unable to hear a struggling baby, and engrossed in a movie all at the same time...perhaps tired after a long travel day/etc...well I can see how even the most tuned in mom could miss that something's not right. One of the flight attendants on that flight recounted the event in an audio recording that was played for the class; I don't think I will ever forget her voice. It was clear that telling the story was difficult for her, and she included some of the personal things that the mother had said, the family's reactions, etc. I did not have kids yet at the time, but it was just harrowing to listen to. So tragic..