Upsetting Article: update #19

[hipmummy]

I will post this in Nighttime and the family bed as well Read the line about babies dying while breastfeeding. If I were a new mom or soon to be mom and was doubting breastfeeding or myself the article would have terrified me. This article was published in over 15 papers around Mass.
This link is to the Hospital Website. I have spoken to someone from the MA breastfeeding Coalition.
http://www.ajh.org/birthcenter/dailynews.html

[hipmummy]

Here is the piece that was quite upsetting

"On record in Essex County are deaths that occurred when babies slept on their stomachs instead of their backs, while in their baby swings, on couches, while breast-feeding, on a parent's shoulder, on soft mattresses or pillows surrounded by loose bedding, on waterbeds, or while sleeping in the same bed with their parents or other caregivers."

[aaronsmom]

Just because a baby dies while breastfeeding doesn't mean it was caused by breastfeeding. They should not have worded it that way...or did they mean it that way?

[llamalluv]

How does a baby die WHILE breastfeeding? :

Wouldn't an infant in distress stop sucking and swallowing?

[ErinsJuneBug]

Anna Jaques huh?! Thats one of my clinical options next semester for my pedi and maternity rotation...i will NOT be going there!

[llamalluv]

So...I just called the number at the bottom and asked...

And was told "mothers are falling asleep while breastfeeding and smothering the babies."

That's REALLY quite different from a baby dying while breastfeeding!

I suggested gently that they may want to rephrase that part to convey that it is death by suffocation/smothering, not "death by titty".

[isabchi]

Originally Posted by llamalluv

How does a baby die WHILE breastfeeding? :

Wouldn't an infant in distress stop sucking and swallowing?

It's the same question I was doing myself:

She said that "Pacifiers reduce risk", sucking in the breast not?....

[Demeter9]

I want to see ten, TEN whole cases of women who are not smokers and are not intoxicated or medicated falling asleep and suffocating their babies.

I bet that they can MAYBE come up with one or two. MAYBE.

[pookahjade]

Originally Posted by Demeter9

I want to see ten, TEN whole cases of women who are not smokers and are not intoxicated or medicated falling asleep and suffocating their babies.

I under stand the intoxicated or medicated part but what does smoking have to do with it??

[NoliMum]

Originally Posted by pookahjade

I under stand the intoxicated or medicated part but what does smoking have to do with it??

Breastfeeding or pregnant mothers who smoke can have babies with asthma and other respiratory problems, which could inhibit their breathing while sleeping.

[Ubelle]

Now how is a nursing mother supposed to not fall asleep in those early days!

I still fall asleep/ get drowsy under the right circumstances when DD nurses and she's nearly 1.

I hate that they over simplify any issue.

[PatienceAndLove]

What about babies who drown from bottle propping? Isn't that an issue?

[pookahjade]

Originally Posted by NoliMum

Breastfeeding or pregnant mothers who smoke can have babies with asthma and other respiratory problems, which could inhibit their breathing while sleeping.

Thanks, that makes more since now.

[prettypixels]

That was a very careless comment, IMO. Given that breastfeeding can save the lives of so many babies by providing them with immunities and things... oy vey. I do kind of understand about the recommendation against co-sleeping... the reality is that many people are not going to educate themselves about how to co-sleep safely. I mean who puts their baby to sleep on a waterbed?

However I wonder how many lives would be saved/improved if instead of "Ask me about safe sleep" buttons, they had "ask me about breastfeeding" buttons!

[Ubelle]

I am pretty sure that the LC who did our breasfeeding class, part of the childbirth class, said that breastfeeding helps reduce the chance of SIDS - she also talked about co-sleeping (safely, but mentioned in a bassinet nearby or in your bed) and how it is easier than having the baby in another room.

She also talked about extended Breastfeeding and really emphasized the supply and demand aspect of breastfeeding.

But my point was that I was under the impression that Breastfeeding could help prevent SIDS. I do understand the risks of drinking/drugs or smoking and then falling asleep with your child but that is a whole separate issue.

But to tell people that your could smother you baby just by breastfeeding - ACK. There were many time early on that I overly worried about suffocating the very tiny bab with overly large breasts - I wonder if I would have BF if I had been told that it could lead to death.

[mom2snugbugs]

Originally Posted by ErinsJuneBug

Anna Jaques huh?! Thats one of my clinical options next semester for my pedi and maternity rotation...i will NOT be going there!

No, you SHOULD go there. Maybe you could educate THEM!

[sapphire_chan]

Y'know, if they ever come out with a well-presented article on this topic, I'll consider reconsidering our decision to co-sleeping/breastfeeding.

[kalisis]

Pretty crazy what they get away with implying.

[hipmummy]

She revised it. Still no good co-sleeping adivice but now the article speaks the truth (well sort of)!

http://www.salemnews.com/archivesear...067071726.html

[NoliMum]

It still claims that the safest place is in a crib with no loose bedding.

I personally think the safest place for an infant to sleep in is its mother's arms, on a dirt floor in a hut, suckling on the breast. But I don't have any medical authority.. I'm only backed up by thousands of years of the specie's survival.