On Sat, 5 Oct 2002, graham barden wrote: >Jan, This is not a case of "safe until PROVEN unsafe". I think the focus >for child-care professionals should be "unsafe until PROVEN safe". I >doubt the numbers you want are available. Of the last three SIDS deaths I >know of in our practice, 2 were co-sleeping in the adult bed with no >alchohol, drugs, etc and 1 was asleep on the mother's chest (Christmas >morning). Since we cannot always control for alcohol, prone sleeping, I beg the list's pardon for my intrusion here as a non-pediatrician. I am finding this discussion extremely interesting. I have a question for those listmember pediatricians who are urging parents NOT to cosleep, inspired in part by Graham's mention of a SIDS death which occurred in an infant sleeping on mom's chest. How do you advise breastfeeding moms to handle those middle-of-the-night newborn feeding sessions? I had an L4-L5 disc herniation *and* rotator cuff bursitis postpartum, so nursing required me to get into position on a sofa, rocker, or bed, with many supportive pillows around me. I almost ALWAYS fell asleep within two or three minutes of latch-on, which my OB and LC both felt was due to (a) exhaustion and (b) hormones associated with letdown, and during the first few days when I tried nursing in a chair, I dropped my son twice - and was woken by his cries. Then I tried the sofa - but he fell off the sofa once. So I moved to bed, where when he fell off my lap, he was on a firm mattress with no bedding on it, in between me and my husband. I figured that was safer than falling to the floor, but perhaps I was mistaken. In discussion with other new moms who had fewer problems than I had (so perhaps could actually have nursed on the floor if they wanted to - I don't think I could have managed the pain), I found that they almost universally experienced similar problems with middle-of-the-night feedings and exhaustion and falling asleep and dropping the baby! So where/how can we safely nurse without accidentally ending up in a cosleeeping situation? FWIW, my pediatrician thought nursing in bed was fine and said that's what she had to do to because she had the same problem with dropping the baby off a chair or sofa, and with falling asleep while nursing. Oh, and to clarify - if at any time I woke up and the baby was sleeping, I did move him back to the bassinett - but usually, I didn't wake up til he was hungry again! Thank you for your considered responses. hillary israeli vmd http://www.hillary.net "uber vaccae in quattuor partes divisum est." newly minted veterinarian-at-large :)