Mum accidentally smothered baby to death... So sad :(

LauraBeth - posted on 04/06/2011

How very very sad!! here in America (well in the south) you are not allowed to co-sleep in the hospital at all

Liz - posted on 04/06/2011

Can anyone link an article? Exactly how was she lying? It is so sad and shocking. You think you're so safe in hospital.

I'm an American expat living in Poland, and I co-slept in the hospital with my son. It's standard practice. There is a bassinet in the room too, but they don't force you to use it. I have never heard of such a death here. It wouldn't be standard/encouraged practice if any babies had died.

Mary Renee - posted on 03/18/2011

Wow, that really is so heartbreaking. I can't even imagine. So horrible.

That said, they didn't allow me to sleep with the baby in the hospital. I mean, I was allowed to room-in and she was right next to me, but not in the bed. The bed in the hospital was smaller than a twin. I don't think I would co-sleep on a twin size bed anyway.

That said... I started co-sleeping on accident in this very way. I started out with the basinett pressed right up against the bed. Baby would cry, I'd breastfeed, put her back in her basinet. Repeat Repeat Repeat.

After about two months of this, my back was killing me from breast feeding sitting up crouched over dead tired about to fall back to sleep. No one ever taught me how to nurse "side lying" because it was considered to "advanced" for beginners. So I tried out nursing her in the side lying position just to help my sore back and Wa La... we've been co-sleeping ever since.

That said, I don't think I would have been comfortable co-sleeping when she was brand new like that. They're just so small and fragile and you're so fatigued. I remember I freaked out for like a minute straight about three days after my daughter was born because I saw a stuffed animal on the floor and I thought she had fallen out of her crib. I was choking on my own breath I was so scared and reaching for this stuffed animal and so confused and sleep deprived and freaking out (I had a 35 hour labor and then she had to stay in the hospital an extra night in which I could not sleep so it was day three of no sleep). Luckily she was still her basinet (duh, she's three days old, she's not crawling out!) The exhaustion I felt in those first few days is indescribable.

That said, I think it was irresponsible to suggest the woman fall asleep breastfeeding with a baby not even a day old yet and still learning to breastfeed! And no one was around or checking on them. God from what I remember about being in the hospital, I wanted to lock my door because nurses came in constantly to check on me and the baby. I wasn't alone with my baby until we left the hospital and my boyfriend went back to work.

This is so sad.

Aura - posted on 03/04/2011

I read about that, too. So sad. Was the mother on any kind of medication? Did she use drugs during her labour? Those could have contributed to smothering, if smothering is what happened. In those cases, I would definitely blame the hospital. However, the point of having a baby room in with you is so that you learn how to take care of it on your own, while still having help nearby. I don't know if the hospital should be held accountable for that.
How did she smother the baby, though? I bed-share and I did it in the hospital, too. I was EXHAUSTED, but I didn't move in my sleep once. How did this happen? I'm more liable to believe that the baby just stopped breathing due to an unknown-at-the-time medical problem.

April - posted on 02/25/2011

LOL ... Lisa, I knew EXACTLY who you were talking about. :) I would never think you were talking about me, no worries! I wasn't sure the hospital should have been held accountable but it's just one of those debates where it's such a fuzzy gray line. I think the hospital shouldn't be held accountable, then someone makes a point and I change my mind. Then someone else makes a point and I change my mind back, lol. Just one of those topics that get you in the heartstrings, but you try to remain objective...

Minnie - posted on 02/25/2011

Oh- I hope you don't think I was referring to you in your post above, April. It was someone who defends mainstream maternity care at all costs in all of her posts.



No one knows if she recognized she was that tired or not. An embolism definitely can cause severe drowsiness and depression. Obviously she didn't have one, because she's still alive.



Does it say if she actually smothered the baby? Or was the baby just found not breathing?



Just a difficult situation all around.

April - posted on 02/25/2011

Lisa, I didn't stop to think that maybe this woman couldn't know that she was that exhausted. I was figuring that when you're tired, you know your tired and was having trouble believing the hospital should be held accountable. I, myself, can tell the difference between exhausted and so-exhausted-that-an-airplane-could- land -in- t h e- hospital- room -and- I wouldn't -wake-up exhausted. I did not take into account that maybe there was a medical condition preventing her from knowing.

Brenda - posted on 02/22/2011

Sad, and she should sue. They just leave new moms without any help whatsoever. "normal" labor is different for every mom, someone should have been with her, a nurse or midwife if her husband/partner wasn't there with her. Pop a baby out, walk out 2 hours later, that's what the docs and insurance would like, but Goddess forbid a mom HAVE the baby at home. Makes no damn sense to me.

Minnie - posted on 02/21/2011

What annoys me Katherine is that a certain someone in the debating mums community defended the health care professionals and said "they couldn't have known that she was that exhausted- she had a normal length labor for a first time mother.'' (paraphrasing, obviously).

Ugh- doctors and nurses cannot assume a one-size-fits-all for mothers and babies. They should have expected her to be exhausted. What if she even had an amniotic fluid embolism? If you're that exhausted I think sometimes it's hard to recognize you are to that point.

Why couldn't someone have stayed with her while she snoozed and breastfed? Isn't that what midwives are for? WITH WOMAN?

Katherine - posted on 02/19/2011

I think they should have shown her the proper way to BF while sleeping. Your boobs are HUGE after pregnancy.
I just read this article and it made me so sad. I hope it doesn't deter moms from BF'ing.
The way they had her laying was an accident waiting to happen.

Geralyn - posted on 02/16/2011

That is so sad.