Sunday, June 13, 2010

Save the world: Love our babies



http://reducefootprints.blogspot.com/

Where does your baby sleep?

When I was a teen ager, I overheard my parents talking about a relative who had crushed her baby in her sleep. If being a bereaved mum is not bad enough, there was sniggering talk about how she was sleeping like a sow and didn't even know that she had rolled over to her baby and killed him.

Those talks impacted me so much that when I became a mum, there was no way I would sleep with my babies.

Last week, coroner Gordon Matenga warned of the dangers of parents co-sleeping with newborns following the "avoidable" death of a 3-week-old boy sleeping with his mother on a pullout couch.

Mr Matenga said the advice on bed-sharing was strongly debated, with some arguing the risk of death was low and the practice encouraged bonding and assisted with breastfeeding.

However, he said co-sleeping deaths were avoidable and asked for his warnings about the risks of doing so to be made public.

Mr Matenga's comments followed similar warnings from two coroners last year after the death of five babies.

One coroner went as far as to urge the Ministry of Health to make it clear that babies under 6 months should not co-sleep.

Co-sleeping Guide

* It is known to increase the risk of death in some circumstances so babies should sleep in their own space until six months old.

* It is particularly dangerous if the mother smoked during pregnancy, or any adult in bed has been drinking, taking drugs or medicines that might reduce their awareness, or is excessively tired.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi An, it is a matter of sheer "taking things for granted" on the parents side....

Or they simply dont care, i really dont know,i thought the role of parents is supposed to protect,,,

hey you have a great week ahead ya

Reanaclaire said...

Last time i put my babies on the baby cot just next to my bed..

Reader Wil said...

The best thing to get a cot next to your bed so that you xcan touch the baby whenever it needs you. I am sorry we didn't.

The coots in my post are indigenous, as far as I know.
I saw your photos of the 20 goslings! Incredible!!

Jo said...

Ann;) what a thought provoking post. Thanks! I never had my children our bed. We just didn't and many people of our age DID. Thanks for commenting on my post on the World Cup Soccer and the theft of the NZ camera crew's equipment. Yes, this is a real problem and I pray that the criminals come to know the Lord. That's all we can do. The SAPS (SA Police) are doing very well, I believe. They apprehend the guilty very quickly; there is a court which tries them immediately while WCS is on. As I said: now it is necessary for the guilty to know that God will forgive them if only they admit their wrongdoings and ask HIM for forgiveness. He is great and gracious and WILL forgive all who confess: 1 John 1:9 says: "If we confess our sins to Him, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong." That's for ALL of us as well. Then we will not wilfully sin. Definitely not steal or murder or lie (all these sins go together believe it or not!) I hope you enjoy the rest of our World Cup Soccer.

Dar said...

What a tragic thing to loose a child to such negligence. I can't imagine loosing a child in the first place, let along to something so avoidable.
I agree with setting standards.
BlessYourHeart

Ah Ngao said...

sometimes when you're in deep sleep,you won't realized that your nose might just be right in front of your baby's nose.you exhales out the CO2 and your baby breathes in your CO2 instead of more oxygen.

Inday said...

My daughter during her pregnancy had read so much about how to take care of her baby that I felt she's so obsessed with the information that she went into the extreme of getting good and expensive stuff (to me and in my opinion only as during the time I had them, I could hardly afford anything for them having the most miser ex-husband worst than Silas Miner) for her baby.

The baby so far sleeps on her own in the cot but they place the cot in their bedroom to make feeding a lot easier.

As my girls are only 14 months apart, believe me Ann, we did not have our own bed, nor they had their own cot. We slept together shockingly on the couch.

It's not a pleasant thing for me to say this on the net, but we survive that part of the ordeal. My mind was alert and with some help from the above, none of my girls suffer any major sickness or had experienced hospitalization.

That is a great blessing.

I am very proud of my daughter though she is very young to be a mother but she possesses maternal skills unheard of her age.