Monday
Nov142011
Fun with Analogies: Co-Sleeping and Knives, Car Travel and Guns
Monday, November 14, 2011
The City of Milwaukee Health Department wants to tell you that co-sleeping is like letting your baby sleep with a sharp knife . They are sharing this news via two new posters (one with a black baby one with a white baby) that tell parents that babies can die when sleeping in adult beds and that warn parents to always put their baby to sleep on its back in a crib. They also give a phone number for people to call if they cannot afford a crib.
I've been over this before. Statistically, co-sleeping is as dangerous as traveling by car (really, read the stats). But the health authorities ignore that. When I wrote about this previously, I said:
But since the City of Milwaukee likes its analogies in visual format, I thought I would help them out by creating an equivalent poster with the message that taking your baby in the car is just like giving your baby a loaded gun to play with.
The idea that crib sleeping is always a perfectly acceptable alternative to co-sleeping is laden with as much societal and cultural baggage as the assumption that walking is always a perfectly acceptable alternative to travel by car. Sometimes it might be, but often it simply isn't. Health authorities need to stop scaring and shaming parents and instead teach them about the pros and cons of different sleep options and about the things that they can do to make their chosen sleep environment as safe as possible.
More info: Co-Sleeping Safety
I've been over this before. Statistically, co-sleeping is as dangerous as traveling by car (really, read the stats). But the health authorities ignore that. When I wrote about this previously, I said:
Cars are convenient. People like cars. Peoples lives would be changed significantly and we would have to drastically change our habits to give up cars.
Bed sharing is convenient. Parents and babies like co-sleeping. Parents would be more tired, breastfeeding rates would be reduced, and parents would be less responsive to their infants at night if they had to give up bed sharing.
Bed sharing is a reality. Parents do it. Banning it or discouraging it is as ridiculous as trying to ban or discourage car travel.
If people stopped traveling by car except when it was really necessary, there would probably be more accidents and more deaths because the roads would be full of inexperienced drivers. And when parents are generally discouraged from sleeping with their babies and then bring them into bed when really desperate, there are more accidents, more deaths.
The Ontario coroner should stop telling people not to bed share and instead tell them how to make bed sharing safer. Public health agencies don’t tell people not to travel by car, instead they tell them to use seatbealts, use car seats, drive the speed limit, don’t use cell phones while driving, etc. Address the conditions that make bed sharing unsafe. But don’t tell people not to do it. Because they will. And they will do it unsafely.
But since the City of Milwaukee likes its analogies in visual format, I thought I would help them out by creating an equivalent poster with the message that taking your baby in the car is just like giving your baby a loaded gun to play with.
The idea that crib sleeping is always a perfectly acceptable alternative to co-sleeping is laden with as much societal and cultural baggage as the assumption that walking is always a perfectly acceptable alternative to travel by car. Sometimes it might be, but often it simply isn't. Health authorities need to stop scaring and shaming parents and instead teach them about the pros and cons of different sleep options and about the things that they can do to make their chosen sleep environment as safe as possible.
More info: Co-Sleeping Safety
Reader Comments (135)
Yeah, but the coroner or health department doesn't know whether co-sleeping is beneficial. They know it's not because all they see are the deaths and hospital stats.
Also, anti-smoking ads/education are having effects, with smoking rates declining over the past 40 years. Similarly in that Ontario study they credit a reduction in infant deaths (I didn't drill in so I don't know how valid) to infant sleep education campaigns. Same report found that vast majority (75%) of unexplained infant deaths involved unsafe sleeping and of those over half (53%) was bed sharing. They simply put two and two together to conclude that parents don't really understand how easy it is for an infant to suffocate, whether from being face down in a heavy blanket or in an adult bed or whatever. That's all. I think it's very responsible of them to take that message out.
That said, you're probably right that the ads will be ignored by most or will be misinterpreted. They are not very educational. And the baby will probably survive no matter which choice you take.
Right, smoking is not the best comparison, which is why Annie's car riding comparison is so perfect. If coroners or whoever is sponsoring these ads don't know the facts about how co-sleeping is beneficial and can be done safely, they shouldn't be putting out an ad. Ignorance is no excuse for using such misleading ads.
Take, for example, the knowledge that leaving infants to sleep or lay in car seats for extended periods of time is dangerous to baby's development. I've seen information reminding parents to not do this, but I've yet to see an ad that tells parents to never transport a baby in a bucket seat outside the car ever.
Really, when we look at the baby items and baby care techniques that get the loudest "Don't ever!" messages they are often things that fall into the attachment parenting philosophies (co-sleeping, babywearing, home birth*). That says something interesting about how it's not facts or even good sense that are pushing these messages. It is corporate profits (cribs, strollers/car seats, hospitals).
*Home birth is not a strictly AP thing, and plenty of AP parents give birth outside of their home, I'm sure. But, there does seem to be a lot of overlap.
Yep, totally agree with you except that I don't particularly think they're against any form of parenting, only that they're reporting facts they've observed.
For me, it's just common sense (cliche I know). Anyone who reads a "Don't Ever" message and is stunned into following it is just lazy. Don't ever jump out of a plane! (unless you have a parachute and are trained to use it). Don't be unemployed (unless you are a business person and can make much more money than at a job). Don't let your baby sleep in bed with you (unless you can do it safely). Hope that nobody lives their lives according to posters :)
I've never seen anything about car seats ... I'm going to check it out! If the baby is sleeping in the car, we leave him in the seat until he wakes up!
Okay, not meaning to argue with you exclusively, I think we agree on the basics. But, these ads are not reporting the facts. That's the problem. Sharing a bed with your baby is no where near as dangerous as letting her sleep with a knife. It is an incredulous comparison and doesn't convey anything truthful about safe infant sleep.
If the ads just stopped with the actually unsafe sleeping picture Cagey pointed out (loose, bulky bedding and pillows) and said this is unsafe and then show a picture of a safe sleep environment (even if it was a crib) I'd not be so critical.
Are African-American mothers more likely to co-sleep? I'm not seeing a correlation between the problem and the proposed solution
Alex:
They may be trying to do good, but they aren't.
The Ontario Coroner and the Milwaukee health Department are targeting co-sleepers. They both make a blanket statement that bed sharing is dangerous and that sleeping on the back, in a crib with nothing but a fitted crib sheet is the only safe place to sleep.
The Ontario Coroner is criticizing "unsafe sleep environments". However, they define any scenario in which an infant is sharing a sleep surface with someone else to be an unsafe sleep environment. That is simply not true. In fact, some studies have shown that it is safer to bed share with an adult (when safety precautions are taken) than to sleep in a crib. With all the crib recalls in recent years, I don't have a lot of confidence in the safety of cribs either.
For many parents, co-sleeping is the only way to get a decent night's sleep. We didn't plan to co-sleep with our son, but it was the only way that anyone got any rest in our house. If I had seen and believed a message like the one that so many health authorities are having to send, I would have been getting up every 20 minutes to attend to my baby or leaving him to cry alone in another room. Neither of those scenarios are acceptable to me, but they are both better than having a dead baby, so if I really believed the message, I would have endangered my own health or that of my baby in order to not have a dead baby.
Heh - yeah - naps in car seats are likely more dangerous than co-sleeping. Around the time my daughter was born a number of children passed away due to positional asphyxiation in their car seats so it made my radar. Many car seat manufacturers went on record at the time to state that car seats are intended to keep infants safe in a crash and are not designed to be a safe sleeping environment (or something to that effect). I talked about it here http://parenthood.phibian.com/?ID=150 on my blog, and there are a few links to more information about that if you are interested.
The short version though: if you let your infant sleep in the car seat, you should be continuously monitoring their breathing.
My problem with the Ontario Coroner reports is that they lump all forms of bedsharing and cosleeping together (which technically doesn't necessarily equal bedsharing).
Some of those unsafe sleep environments included "bedsharing" on hideabeds, pullout couches and ordinary couches. Which is clearly completely different from a proper co-sleeping setup.
only if you sleep with them by your shins.
I think Elizabeth's point was that there isn't a connection between the problem she described and the City of Milkwaukee's proposed solution (don't co-sleep!).
I find it offensive as my baby sleeps with me and until he did so it was hell trying to get any peace in the night. I would never do anything to harm him and to suggest that him sleeping with me is like sleeping with a knife, for goodness sake. Safe cosleeping should be encouraged as it will reduce postnatal depression as the mothers will be better rested and more relaxed. Mothers should be encouraged to do whatever they can to get more rest as long as it is safe and heathy for baby. What are the SIDS rates for Asian and African countries where cosleeping is the norm, there is no such thing as cribs in many countries.
Derailing...
Plenty of children thrive in educational environments outside of their home, from very young ages. Is it essential? I'd say in many instances it is - particularly in those home environments with unstable caregivers or unsafe living conditions. And not everyone lives within walking distance to.. anything. Or can afford (or is educated about) anything but non-nutrient-dense food.
Back on track...
Cosleeping, in unsafe environments - like a couch, or with a drunk/high parent, formula-fed-only baby, in a house filled w/cigarette smoke - can be dangerous.
It isn't cosleeping itself, it's how the cosleeping is done; and this campaign doesn't address that.
Sigh, Same old hashing of the Wealthy Western World and her weird double standards... Apart form the fact that co-sleeping works... not just for western families in ridiculously large homes... but for most of the world where homes for whole families are actually one or two rooms and the only way to keep warm or safe is to co-sleep. This ad might tell the world that co-sleeping is lethally dangerous... but the rest of the world seems to be surviving on co-sleeping, in fact in the rest of the world there are just bigger issues... lack of water, lack of nutrition, HIV/Aids... I won't go on!!!
This: "Health authorities need to stop scaring and shaming parents and instead teach them about the pros and cons of different sleep options and about the things that they can do to make their chosen sleep environment as safe as possible."
I don't understand why some doctors, nurse, health dept, cannot work WITH parents. My husband and I both have MDs, and we co-slept with our babies. We created a safe co-sleeping environments, and I know that co-sleeping helped me to breastfeed with more success and to be close to my babies at a time when both of us needed to be shaping that bond. We loved co-sleeping, and we have at times gone back to it with our now 5 and 2 year old when needed.
PS. I saw an ad for a mattress with a dad and baby co-sleeping, and I meant to send it to you. Now I need to dig it out!
awful..and creepy. Are the babies supposed to look dead? :(
IMO its more of a Money issue. Its cheaper to educate people on One type then two. Its cheaper to Scare people away from something then spend hours of proper training of teachers/nurses/social workers etc. And also ignorance of the subject. Takes to much time and money to research to get the proper stats oh what really happened.
This isnt even a cosleeping issue because real cosleeping isnt passing out on the sofa with the baby in hand or one night letting baby stay in the bed. Real cosleeping is constant and has forethought to it.
[...] in Parenting says in Fun With Analogies “Health authorities need to stop scaring and shaming parents and instead teach them about the [...]
I would like to see formula and vaccine rates..... 49 percent of SIDS cases are within 3 weeks after a vaccine.
totally agree!...
I had a crib, but never used it. I co-slept with both of my children and it was wonderful--socially, emotionally and medically. This ad is completely irresponsible. They don't list any of the benefits of co-sleepings, and just focus on an "abstinence only" style of propaganda. Educate, don't preach!! Plus, I find it hard to believe that crib sleeping is any safer. People put pillows and blankets in cribs all the time. Lastly, most cultures around the world have been co-sleeping for centuries. I don't believe that they have a higher infant death rate because they don't use cribs. That's ridiculous!
What bothers me about the poster is that multiple guidelines for safe co-sleeping are being broken, in addition to the sleeping position of the baby.
The bed in the poster looks soft and there are fluffy blankets and pillows near the baby. The baby is laying on his belly (can't tell how old the baby is, our baby has slept on his belly since he learned to roll over) and I can't tell what type of bed/surface is there.
I bed-shared with my first for 20 months and my 2nd slept in our room for 6 months and now is in a crib in the other room that he shares with his brother.
Hi
Offerering free contraception, help, medical care and counselling will reach people who need them. It is not a teenage mom vs. 20s issue but a planned and supported pregnancy vs. unplanned and unsupported.
Absolutely. Co-sleeping is easiest for moms and babies, and there are safe ways to do it (like sidecarring a crib). And I'm pretty sure that, if parents were so stupid as to leave a knife with a sleeping baby, there would be more than 8.8 deaths per 100,000--and that doesn't include injuries. These posters are completely unfounded and incorrect, plus they do nothing to solve the problem!
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/133552808.html
"Minutes before city officials unveiled a new safe-sleep advertising campaign Wednesday, the medical examiner's office announced that a 7-week-old baby was found dead on Milwaukee's south side after co-sleeping with his or her mother.
The infant, whose gender was not released, is at least the ninth Milwaukee baby to die this year while in an unsafe sleep environment. Details of the child's death will be released following an autopsy, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner said."
9 deaths this year. Something has to be addressed.
thats very true something should be. but its not from cosleeping itself. if it were would would see the same high numbers all over the world.
they need to educate. thats all it comes down to. Improper technique in any sleep environment will cause danger. I bet 90% of these poor babies deaths were more accidental cosleep then regular aware of the situation.
Yes, I'm sure most of these were accidental. I agree that improper techniques in any co-sleeping situation is dangerous and should be talked about.
The problem is that this is NOT about women who made choices (educated) choices to co-sleep. This has nothing to do with SIDS or formula feeding or vaccines (although these could be factors and are other discussions althogether). This is about women who do not know how to properly co-sleep. Or, do not have other choices. There needs to be education and because the lack of money/people to address each family, there needs to be a greater outreach. Yeah, this ad is sort of tasteless and people outside of Milwaukee see it more as an attack on ALL co-sleeping mothers. But if it helps one woman realize they need to create a better co-sleeping environment (if thats what they choose to do), then it has done its job.
I think a Pack N Play is a relevant solution. Not ideal but a step in the right direction.
One of the women were breastfeeding their child on a couch and smothered their child. This isn't just about those horrible formula feeding mothers. Yes, encouraging breastfeeding may help but it is not going to solve the problem and those who think so are disillusioned.
So instead of talking about how we all successfully co-sleep (I partially co-sleep), lets talk about the real problems and what this ad is really targeting.
Rachey:
Yes, something probably does need to be addressed. If 9 infants had died in car accidents this year, something would need to be addressed too, but it wouldn't be telling parents not to take their child in a car.
Just saying 9 deaths this year in an unsafe sleep environment is not enough. What made it unsafe?
- Was there heavy bedding involved?
- Had the parents been drinking or doing drugs?
- Are the parents smokers?
- Does the mother breastfeed or formula feed?
- Were they sleeping on a regular bed with a firm mattress or were they on a couch, recliner, pillow top mattress, etc.?
- Were these parents who PLANNED to co-sleep and took appropriate precautions or were they so completely exhausted that they collapsed with their baby in an unsafe environment?
Rachey:
My impression was that this ad is targeting anyone who shares a bed with their baby. It explicitly says "babies can die when sleeping in adult beds". It doesn't say "babies can die if you fall asleep on the couch".
This video from FOX news gives some good perspective on the issue too: http://www.phdinparenting.com/2010/05/05/fox-news-video-on-bed-sharing/
The thing is, coming from Milwaukee, I know what these ads mean and who they are targeting. This may not be evident to people that are not from Milwaukee. These are mostly women who have not planned to co-sleep and most likely do not have a place to put their child, except with them. These are women who are most likely either drunk or on drugs. At least one was breastfeeding while intoxicated in an unsafe environment (a couch). Smoking is probably an issue.
This is not about women who safely co-sleep. If you co-sleep safely, then continue what you're doing and don't worry about it. This is about educating women (lets be real; low income mothers) not only about co-sleeping, but parenting in a safe and effective manner. Again, making it about us (mothers who co-sleep safely) completely disregards the problem.
Okay, fine. But why not educate these women instead of just telling them "No, never!" You don't think that a mother who has taken her child to bed because she has no other option won't feel like she is being demonized by an ad like this?
Rachey:
Most of the babies who die in car accidents probably do so because they weren't in a proper car seat, because the driver was drunk or speeding or texting. But there aren't ads saying that taking your baby in the car is like letting them play with a gun (with an unwritten footnote that if you own and know how to use a proper car seat and are a safe driver, then we aren't really talking to you, so carry on).
I'm not suggesting that anyone disregard the problem. I am suggesting that the City of Milwaukee and other health authorities find a more nuanced solution. I think this approach is dangerous and will result in more dead babies, not fewer dead babies.
Look I totally agree with both of you. I'm not trying to start fights. Yes, education is key and maybe a more nuanced approach would be more effective. No, I don't think women should feel demonized because she has no other choice. I also do not necessarily agree with those ads. But they are targeting a very specific situation. I'm simply saying that these co-sleeping deaths, these specific ones, are most likely tied to unsafe co-sleeping habits; including alcohol, drugs, smoking, overtiredness and unsafe environments, such as a couch or a recliner. As a mother, I had the opportunity to extensively research safe bed sharing habits and made the necessary changes to my bed and lifestyle so to do so in a safe manner. Not all mothers can do that.
This ad has gotten people talking, in a very public arena. I've seen this story at least 6 times today. And that's good, because then we can talk about how to address this problem and others like it.
That's all I'll say about it.
I don't know how my daughter made it to 9, what with our co-sleeping with her. it's unpossible.
If the baby has been raised in a baby wearing family it will be ok as it knows not to touch the sharp bit of the knife ;)
Great post
I'm going to postulate that the co-sleeping to death rate is way off. The data come from medical charts. When the doctor asks where baby sleeps, co-sleeping parents are guilted into lying to avoid the finger-wagging lecture that will follow if they admit to bedsharing. Its probably much safer than the data show.
I don't think I've ever seen stats that estimate what percentage of co-sleeping babies die. I've only seen stats on the number of co-sleeping deaths per live birth. Similarly, the car stats that I quoted aren't based on people who rode in cars. They are based on the overall population.
Im guilty of that. Military Doctors are very against natural parenting so i feel i have to say he sleeps in a Crib or heavy repercussions..
Great post Annie. Reading this made my blood boil! I am just so sick of the way society treats mothers, particularly new mothers. It isn't helpful and it isn't right.
And so I wrote this: http://www.amoment2think.ca/2011/11/16/leave-moms/
The real issue in Milwaukee is not co-sleeping, it is deadbeat parents who drink or do drugs and then sleep in the same bed as their children. Why is nothing being done about that?
How many hungry babies could that add feed?
I first wrote a post on this last year and then recapped on Nov. 11. I am a black woman who grew up in Milwaukee and this breaks my heart. In 2004, the mortality rate for Black infants was 19.2 deaths per 1000 births. It improved slightly in 2008 to 15.2 per 1000. In the Milwaukee deaths, ALL of the babies were formula/ bottle-fed. Some of the mothers were under the influence, some had older children also bed-sharing, most if not all were single parents. They have been running controversial billboards for 2 years and one can say that it's not helping.
What a coincidence! It also turns out that 49% of all babies have had a vaccine in the last 3 weeks!
This makes me sick. Your post is good but it leaves out the aspect of attached parenting. How parents for centuries have slept with their children. Communally. And now, in this grossly exaggerated culture of Independence, we want little babies who know nothing but the womb and closeness to her parent, to sleep separately, by her own little self.
That scares me.
Children separated from their parents/caregivers at night are the ones we ought to think of; not those that get the attached care that they need at night.
Reports on studies on the "risks' of bedsharing always fail to highlight that "risky" cases involve alcohol and drugs. As in the parent was not at her full wits. And by that, I do not imply the typical sleep deprivation of a parent of a young child.
[...] and read the eloquent rebuttals of the campaign by writers such as those on : Monkey Butt Junction, PhD in Parenting, Tales of a Kitchen Witch, Mother Nature Network, The Stir, The Truth about Motherhood and probably [...]
I agree. They should be educating, not just saying "don't do it". Because as Annie points out, it's going to happen anyway. Parents need to know what the risks are and how to lessen them.
And, sadly, I would be interested to know how many infant deaths have occurred among babies in cribs in the same area in the same period of time (after all, SIDS has been called "crib death" -- tragically, infants still die, even when we don't know why, even when we do things as "recommended"). Possibly some of those have included risk factors such as smoking, heavy bedding. Yet health officials warn against those risk factors, not just crib sleeping itself.
Okay I wasn't going to say anymore, but I thought this was interesting and just as detrimental.
I live in a smaller Indiana town. Our county has the highest rate of teen pregnancy in the state and 1 out of 4 pregnant women smoke. But they had an article this morning about how our county had 3 co-sleeping related deaths last year (I don't know the circumstances). Here are some choice quotes:
"According to the Indiana Department of Child Services, a baby’s risk of dying is 40 times greater while sleeping in an adult bed than in a crib."
"Angebrandt said other Indiana counties have erected billboards to teach parents about the dangers associated with sleeping with a baby. In Milwaukee, a series of billboards was unveiled last week that shows a baby lying in a bed next to a large knife with text that reads, “Your baby sleeping next to you can be just as dangerous.”
“All it takes is a little education, a little knowledge,” Heimann said.
“If we can get involved early, we can get the problem resolved before there’s harm.”'
“But repeatedly, year after year, we have the loss of a baby due to co-sleeping,” she said. “It’s preventable. We need to do more education."
What is interesting to me is other cities are going to take Milwaukee's ad campaign and probably adapt it for their own "co-sleeping problem".
Rachel said, "I live in a smaller Indiana town. Our county has the highest rate of teen pregnancy in the state and 1 out of 4 pregnant women smoke."
Seems to me that the billboard ads this city should be running are "Consider adoption" ads. If there's that high of a teen pregnancy rate, and they obviously aren't educating themselves on proper pre-natal care (smoking), then I'm assuming that most of them don't have as much interest in the overall health and well-being of the child either. Telling these "kids" to get a crib is not going to be the solution. I live in a city where a 20 year old mother was arrested yesterday for killing her own baby just because he was crying. The mother came home drunk (she's 20) at 2:30am, and at some point, the baby started crying, so she took him out of his crib, beat it to death and dumped his body in the woods near her house, went back home and called 911 to report him "missing". She was arrested less than 24 hours later. These kids having kids who aren't ready and aren't willing to be young mothers need to SERIOUSLY consider adoption. It's the best way to keep their babies safe. A crib can only do so much. This 13 month old who died had a crib, but he was taken out of it to get beaten to death. A lot of good the crib did, huh?
You state, “I live in a smaller Indiana town. Our county has the highest rate of teen pregnancy in the state and 1 out of 4 pregnant women smoke.”
Seems to me that the billboard ads this city should be running are “Consider adoption” ads. If there’s that high of a teen pregnancy rate, and they obviously aren’t educating themselves on proper pre-natal care (smoking), then I’m assuming that most of them don’t have as much interest in the overall health and well-being of the child either. Telling these “kids” to get a crib is not going to be the solution. I live in a city where a 20 year old mother was arrested yesterday for killing her own baby just because he was crying. The mother came home drunk (she’s 20) at 2:30am, and at some point, the baby started crying, so she took him out of his crib, beat it to death and dumped his body in the woods near her house, went back home and called 911 to report him “missing”. She was arrested less than 24 hours later. These kids having kids who aren’t ready and aren’t willing to be young mothers need to SERIOUSLY consider adoption. It’s the best way to keep their babies safe. A crib can only do so much. This 13 month old who died had a crib, but he was taken out of it to get beaten to death. A lot of good the crib did, huh?
see really the saddest part is The instances I have heard about has nothing to do with Cosleeping.
Passing out drunk on the sofa with a baby isnt cosleeping. Passing out while feeding the baby in bed isnt cosleeping, thats accidentally passing out from lack of sleep. So now In Wisconsin trying to pass an anti cosleeping law all parents will be terrified to fall asleep around their babies for fear of Prosecution, and even more people will be passing out from exhaustion. I really cant believe how stupid the state and county officials are being about this. Its really disturbing.
Has anyone seen the Kohl's "Safe at Home" billboards they had around a while back? I don't remember exactly what the billboard looked like, but here's what I found online. "Your baby should always sleep alone... in an empty crib…" http://www.texaschildrens.org/carecenters/injuryprevention/kohls_safe_at_home.aspx
I haven't shopped at Kohl's since.