Poll Results: Baby Sleep Positions
February 7, 2009 by Angela White, J.D., breastfeeding counselor
Filed under breastfeeding, poll
According to the Chicago Tribune, before the “Back to Sleep” campaign began in 1994, only 14% of babies in the United States were placed on their backs to sleep. After the campaign started, the number skyrocketed to 73%. While the recommendation remains for babies to sleep on their backs, there are signs that more and more parents are choosing to place their babies to sleep on their sides or tummies. A 2005 article from the Detroit News reported that in a Babycenter.com poll of 24,000 respondents, a nearly equal number of parents (42%) put their babies down to sleep on their stomachs as on their backs (43%) in spite of the worry about Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
In our own Breastfeeding 1-2-3 survey of 116 respondents, 60% of parents put their babies to sleep on their backs, while the other 40% rest their babies on the side or tummy.
Please take a moment to vote in the new poll in the side bar!
Just a note, there are studies that show some SIDS cases may actually be caused by the inhalation of the gasses produced from crib mattresses. If you have a fan in the room where the baby sleeps, it circulates the air and gives the baby more oxygen than a room without a fan. It has nothing to do with rebreathing carbon dioxide. Or you could get an organic mattress which has NO nasty chemicals that off-gas.
Besides, if you follow the guidelines put forth by Dr McKenna (http://www.nd.edu/~jmckenn1/lab/) and Dr Sears, co-sleeping or bed-sharing is the biological norm for breastfeeding mothers.