Infant Suffocation Due To Bed-Sharing On The Rise In The U.S.

Monday, January 26, 2009
AHN Staff Washington, D.C. (AHN) - A new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that for the 20-year period 1984 to 2004, incidents of accidental strangulation and suffocation deaths rose to 12.5 from 2.8 per 100,000 live birth. In 2004, 513 such cases were recorded from only 103 in 1984.
According to Carrie Shapiro-Mendoza from CDC in Atlanta and lead author of the study which will come out in the February issue of the Pediatrics journal, the rise in infant deaths was noticed from 1996, the same time that sudden infant death syndrome went flat after a nationwide campaign for parents to have their babies sleep on their backs.
The rising incidents prompted experts to discourage parents from sharing the same bed with the infants or other unsafe places. Instead the babies may be placed in the same room as their parents to facilitate breast feeding, but on a separate sleep surface and with a firm mattress. But the baby must be on his back and have no blankets, pillows, stuff animals or other objects that could potentially suffocate the infant.
A 2003 survey showed that the rise in baby suffocation was linked with the number of babies sleeping with a parent or caregiver which more than doubled from 1993 to 2000 especially among poorer and younger women particularly those of African and Asian American ethnicity.
Yvette Clinton-Reid, chair of a committee that reviews infant deaths for the District of Columbia's medical examiner, attributes the higher incidents of suffocation deaths among African and Asian babies to lack of sleeping facilities and a belief that their babies are safer sharing the same bed with the mother.