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Baby bed-sharing warning
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Mothers who smoke should not share a bed with their babies, a researcher has warned.
Professor Ed Mitchell, from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, has analysed cases of cot death (sudden infant death syndrome).
 It is time to recommend that mothers who smoke should not share a bed with their babies  |
| Professor Ed Mitchell, University of Auckland |
Writing in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), Professor Mitchell also highlights recent research which found that cot death is almost five times more likely among infants of mothers who smoked during pregnancy compared with infants of non-smokers.
The risk of cot death was also shown to be 40% higher if the mother did not smoke, but the father did.
Professor Mitchell said: "Now that few infants sleep on their fronts, maternal smoking is the major risk factor for sudden infant death syndrome.
"One of the effects that tobacco causes is to reduce the ability to arouse.
"What we suspect is happening is that while baby is bed sharing it may experience a stress, such as airway obstruction, thermal stress or rebreathing of expired gases.
"An infant without an arousal defect will wake up, more and get out stressful situation, whereas the baby with an arousal defect doesn't respond."
A study, published in the same issue of the BMJ, concludes there is nothing hazardous about the general principle of babies sharing a bed with their parents.
The crucial factor, the researchers believe, is the particular circumstances in which bed sharing occurs.
Risk factors
Dr Peter Blair from the Royal Hospital for Children in Bristol, along with colleagues from Leeds studied a population of 17 million people, which included 325 babies who died and 1,300 infants who did not.
They found that bed sharing was, for the most part, not risky, particularly if the infant was placed back in a cot for the remainder of their sleep.
However, they found the majority of infants who had died after sharing a bed had parents who smoked.
The risk also seemed to be greater if the parents had recently consumed alcohol, or were extremely tired.
Infants who were placed under a duvet were also found to be more at risk than those who were not.
Guidance put out by the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths says: "It is lovely to have your baby in your bed with you for a cuddle or a feed, but put her back in the cot before you go to sleep if you or your partner smoke, have recently drunk alcohol, take drugs or are extremely tired.
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See also: |
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15 Nov 99 | Health |
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Stomach-sleeping theory could explain cot death |
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10 Aug 99 | Health |
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Duvets 'still a cot death risk' |
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19 Nov 99 | Medical notes |
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Smoking: The health effects |
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10 Sep 99 | Health |
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Pathologists 'must think dirty' on baby deaths |
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25 Feb 99 | Health |
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Cot death error 'costs lives' |
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05 Aug 99 | Health |
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Cot death rate falls |
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17 Aug 99 | Health |
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Cot death diagnosis may hide suffocation |
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07 Jan 99 | Health |
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Abuse blamed for some cot deaths |
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Internet links: |
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Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths |
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British Medical Journal |
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Sudden Infant Death Syndrome links |
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SIDS Australia |
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