SIDS and Co-sleeping - Time to Avoid Blanket Statements


by Barbara Behrmann, Ph.D. - Date: 2006-12-16 - Word Count: 734 Share This!

Another day, another article that indicts co-sleeping as a risk factor for SIDS. This time the article Solving the SIDS Mystery, appeared in the November 13 issue of U.S. News and World Reports. The article's main intent was to report on a recent study in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) in which researchers discovered abnormalities in the part of the brain (the medulla) in babies who died of SIDS compared to the medullas of babies who died of other causes. This is significant because it points to a biological basis for SIDS. Researchers also believe that SIDS ultimately will be found to have multiple biological causes that make babies more susceptible to environmental risks such as soft bedding or cigarette smoke.

The problem starts here, in how these environmental risks are discussed. And it's representative of a problem characterizing much of the discourse surrounding SIDS.

Is Bed Sharing Always Dangerous?

The article screams loud and clear that co-sleeping is a risk factor for SIDS. But is it? Has culture made biology that irrelevant, yet alone dangerous? The biological norm, remember, is that baby mammals sleep with mommy mammals. Granted, other mammals don't sleep on soft mattresses with heavy blankets. They don't abuse alcohol and drugs which would make them less responsive to any distress their baby may have. And I've never known a mother panda to smoke cigarettes, a known risk factor for SIDS. But these situations are not the same thing as co-sleeping in general.

Studies show it is not bedsharing itself that puts babies at risk, but the circumstances surrounding it; e.g., a parent smokes or abuses drugs or alcohol, a mattress is too soft; bedding is too heavy and too close to the baby's head; and the baby is lying in a position other than on its back, etc. But these are risk factors for babies who sleep in cribs, too. Why blame bed-sharing across the board? For the AAP to make policy recommendations for all mothers and babies based on circumstances in high risk settings or on high risk populations is unscientific and unethical.

Moreover, co-sleeping babies tend to follow the sleep patterns of their mothers. This helps them develop more mature sleeping and breathing patterns. Babies who sleep alone, on the other hand, have more difficulty rousing themselves from deep sleep - a factor that may contribute to SIDS. To be sure, there are many situations in which it is not safe for mothers to sleep with their babies. But to declare that bedsharing is itself a risk factor for SIDS is downright wrong.

What About Infant Feeding?

While co-sleeping is the scapegoat for many infant deaths, voices are strangely silent when it comes to infant feeding. Yet breastfeeding is recommended for SIDS prevention, even by the AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics). And if we know that breastfeeding reduces the risk of SIDS, we can turn that statement around and (using breastfeeding as the biological norm and thus the appropriate basis for comparison) assert that formula-feeding increases the risk of SIDS. So while the U.S. News and World Reports article is quick to point out other ways parents can reduce risk, such as placing babies on their backs to sleep, there is nothing that even suggests they can also reduce risk by breastfeeding.

These biases and omissions are even more significant when we consider the relationship between breastfeeding and sleeping arrangements. Studies document that mothers and babies who sleep together nurse more often during the night than those who don't share sleep. It also helps prevent breast engorgement and breast infections. Perhaps most importantly, though, it is just easier to nurse when you don't have to get out of a warm bed to do so.

The bottom line is losing a baby to SIDS is devastating. And any new insights we can obtain to help us keep a cherubic baby from becoming a mortality statistic is great news. But let's not necessarily throw the baby out from the bed! Let's not confuse science with ideology and cultural biases. After all, for most of human history, and still in most of the world today, human babies have slept with their mothers. Just like other mammals do.

For more information about SIDS, bed sharing, and much more, visit the website of Dr. James McKenna, Director of the Center for Behavioral Studies of Mother-Infant Sleep at the University of Notre Dame and one of the leading authorities on the topic. http://www.nd.edu/%7Ejmckenn1/lab/index.html.


Related Tags: breast-feeding, sids, breastfeeding, bed sharing, co-sleeping

Barbara Behrmann, Ph.D. is the author of The Breastfeeding Café: Mothers Share the Joys, Secrets & Challenges of Nursing, University of Michigan Press, 2005. She is a freelance writer, a frequent speaker in the U.S. and Canada, and has appeared on a variety of television and radio broadcasts. Barbara maintains a growing website at http://www.breastfeedingcafe.com, offering information, resources, articles and products for parents and health care providers alike. The mother of two formerly breastfed children, she lives in upstate New York.

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