![]() ![]() The lack of sleep is one of the hardest aspects of having a baby. But was that safe? Not! The baby was sleeping on a feather pillow which had been put in the bed! It would have been easy for this baby to suffocate against that. The beautiful baby was sound asleep in their bassinet. I remember going into a home for a breastfeeding consultation many years ago. If you have a pillow top mattress consider putting a yoga mat under where the nursing parent and the baby are sleeping to make the surface firmer. We would have been so much safer on a firm flat mattress with no blankets or pillows near the baby. I think back to my first weeks with my first son and we slept together, him on my chest, on my husband’s old lazy boy reclined for hours each night. Being over heated is associated with infant death, in bed or not!ħ. Have them near you but in the safest sleep position.Ħ. After you are done feeding make sure to roll them on their back. Her fragile baby stopped growing in the uterus and had to be delivered by emergency Ceasarain Section at 38 weeks. No one told this mother that this was a risk factor. When you have a fragile baby they are much more likely to die period, but bed sharing is more of a risk. This news story is what spurred me on to write this. Watch this award winning news story to learn more.Ĥ. This is rarely talked about but most babies who die in beds with their families are formula fed. BTW, go a head and have a glass of wine or beer, just sober up before bed!ģ. What about medications for a Cesarean Section? So not just drugs you might be taking for fun but any medication that might cause physical or mental impairment. No smoking! Research shows that babies who sleep with smokers are more likely to die in bed.Ģ. Here are the Safe Sleep Seven: Safe Sleep Sevenġ. I am saying if you do bed share, here are some ways to make it safer. Be clear, I am not recommending that families bed share. They know that bed sharing and breastfeeding often go hand in hand so they have developed a list of suggestions to help reduce the risk of infant death while bed sharing.įamilies need to feel comfortable with their choices. I have been involved with La Leche League for over 24 years. In my experience, this perfect sleep scenario is rare. Having your baby appropriately dressed (Not to warm, not too cold.), in your bedroom for the first twelve months (How come we aren’t talking about this?), close at hand but in their own separate sleep space with no blankets, pillows, bumper pads (Why are stores still selling bumper pads?) in the sleep space with them, is safest. The nursing parent provides all of that for them. They just want warmth, security, and food. Many of us don’t have to worry about tigers eating our babies any more but our little ones don’t know about all of the modern changes that make life so much safer for them. Humans are a carrying species and our babies expect to be close to us. I say, smart baby! Being close to a parent helped keep a baby safe not too long ago. Many families choose to bed share but many families end up sleeping their babies because the baby will not sleep unless they are touching another human being. This outstanding webinar by Marji Cyrul discusses what the current research actually says. This re-thinking has caused a re-framing of just say no, “never sleep with your baby”, to a risk reduction approach at least at the state level here in Michigan. This unintended consequence seems to be having the “safe sleep” folks reconsider their approach to reducing infant mortality. Since the infant mortality coalitions have started the campaign of “never bed share” with your baby, an unanticipated result seems to be infant deaths on couches and chairs have been sky rocketing. For more information check out our podcast on this! Make sense? On a couch? Co-sleeping but not bed sharing. When you are bed sharing, having an infant sleep with another adult in a bed, you are co-sleeping but not all co-sleepers are bed sharing. This is when a baby and another person are sharing a sleep space. There are many terms that are often confused. ![]() It is more common for families who are breastfeeding to bed share but many families who formula feed also bed share. Up until the last 100-200 years babies commonly slept with their parent and around the world this is still common. Little human mammals expect to sleep close to their parents and often won’t settle if this doesn’t happen. Bed sharing and having young babies seem to go hand in hand. ![]()
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