Thanks to the press for yet another reason to jump to the defense of parents who sleep with their infants. Recently, the news reported that a mother, who was flying from Washington D.C. to Kuwait, fell asleep nursing her four week old infant and accidentally suffocated her. Of course the words “breastfeeding” and “suffocates infant” in the same bold headline makes for an eye catching piece of news. It also raises the ire of parents and professionals on both sides of the fence regarding infant sleep safety.
I wrote a piece called Why Nighttime Breastfeeding and Bed Sharing Is So Important, so obviously we know where I stand. But I need to emphasize that while I believe it is beneficial to share sleep with your baby, it needs to be done safely. Falling asleep sitting in a cramped airlplane seat with your baby in your arms, possibly with a thick airplane blanket covering both yourself and your baby, is not safe. But this is not a normal infant-sleep scenario so drawing a correlation between breatsfeeding and suffocation in this case, is unfair.
I think it would be very rare for the act of breastfeeding to cause suffocation. Breasts can act as pillows and certainly a newborn’s nostrils can be occluded by the breast if a mother or someone else is not paying attention. However, from my own experience as a new mom, a baby will pull off if it needs to take a breath. When side lying in a firm bed, without heavy duvets or other obstacles to breathing, an infant would pop off the breast and/or turn its head, and thus have space to breathe. However, if the mother is asleep sitting in a semi-reclined position, on a couch or in an arm chair, it is the unsafe sleep environment that can cause suffocation. Not breastfeeding.
Without knowing the full story of what happened, I can only imagine the background information in this story: The exhaustion of travel, the drone of an airplane engine, the warm feeling you get when snuggled in with your baby, blissfully nursing, that hormone cholecystokinin (CCK) being released while baby suckles, making mom drift off into a peaceful slumber… No one is to blame. This is a tragic accident and that is all it is.
My heart goes out to the grieving family.
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Posted by Melodie Attachment/Natural Parenting, Breastfeeding Infants, Media & News Subscribe to RSS feed
This is a great article and you are right, a true tragedy. When you throw in the blankets that airlines sometimes require women to use it can be dangerous! Mothers need to be free to nurse without coverage and meet their babies’ needs in a safe way.
Here is what I wrote on the topic:
http://thevervepath.com/2009/1.....-airplane/
.-= Crystal Gold´s last blog ..Wordless Wednesday 12/2/09 =-.
This is a tragic story to hear, but I wouldn’t blame it on breastfeeding. I have breastfeed my child at dosed off and when my son was finished feeding he pulled off so there has to be other factors in this case missing. I’m sorry to hear the mother’s loss but I hope this doesn’t turn a negative light on breastfeeding.
.-= Chaotic Kristy´s last blog ..My 2 year old breastfeeding =-.