‘Separate bed safer for baby’

Press, 27 April 1983, Page 26

‘Separate bed safer for baby’

Babies sleeping in beds with their parents or other children can easily be suffocated, according to Dr Shirley Tonkin, of the Health Department in Auckland.

Seven children less than a year old had died in Auckland in the last two years from what appeared to be suffocation in bed while they were sleeping with others, Dr Tonkin said, in an article in the latest issue of the “New Zealand Medical Journal.”

In one case, the father had his shoulder over the infant; in three cases, the mother was over the infant; in one case, the mother had the infant in the crook of her arm with its face under her breast; and in two cases, other children in the family had moved during the night to be on top of the baby, she said.

“There are some persons and organisations who advocate bed-sharing on the grounds that it increases the child’s sense of being protected and loved,” she said.

“Bed-sharing may or may not create more security than normal loving and holding of the infant when he is awake but it has dangerous possibilities,” Dr Tonkin said. “It would seem to be very much safer for an infant' to be put in a bassinet or cot by itself than share a bed with others.”

“If the bassinet is in the same room as the parents, they will usually wake to respond to the infant’s needs, and if it is placed beside the bed, the mother can touch the baby for reassurance and comfort — in the same room, but not in the same bed.”