Dear CBC,
As an ardent supporter of the CBC and public broadcasting, I have to let you know that I will no longer be a supporter.
The incredibly biased news brief which put such a poor light on the millenia-old practice of cosleeping was incorrect, inflammatory and did not even address the real issues.
Let me ask you -- if SIDS, identified as 'sudden infant death syndrome' and by its very definition is UNEXPLAINED, then how could 'maternal suffocation' be a cause of SIDS? Then the cause of death would be suffocation or accident, not SIDS. The logic is faulty. To force a mother to be up late at night, all night, trying to stay awake in order to put her sleeping baby back in a lonely crib is what leads to unsafe cosleeping situations, like sleeping in a couch or chair. Cosleeping deaths while the mother is intoxicated, under the influence of drugs or in a smoking household are not rightly cosleeping deaths, but cosleeping inevitably gets the bad reputation, something which the CBC had the opportunity to set straight and absolutely failed.
What no-one seems to talk about are the risks of crib-sleeping. What about the other deaths from SIDS that occur when the child is in a crib? Or those babies in Surrey burned in their crib when a lamp fell in? Or the infant whose fingers were consumed by a ferret... in a crib? Had those babies been safely sleeping in their parents' presence, those tragic accidents would not have occurred.
All over the world, cosleeping is the norm. It is biologically correct (cavemen did not force their children to sleep separately; had they done so we would have died out as a species). It promotes breastfeeding duration. It promotes maternal and infant rest and health. It has been shown to prevent SIDS (yes, PREVENT!). Safe cosleeping should be encouraged, and parents not be made to feel bad because they 'insist' on an unsafe practice.
Here is a recent article by the Sunday Times in the UK which talks about the changing reputation of cosleeping, something which the CBC just put back 10 years due to your incorrect reporting: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1083020.ece
You may want to pay special attention to this quotation from the article: “In the UK, 500 children a year die of Sids,” Sunderland writes. “In China, where it [co-sleeping] is taken for granted, Sids is so rare it does not have a name.”
Shame on you CBC. I expected better reporting from you, and now I feel that I must question the quality of your reporting on all subjects.
Sadly,
Lorien Quattrocchi
7 comments:
I actually did mention the risks of crib-sleeping in the interview, but it didn't make air. When Jacob was a baby there were all those drop-side crib recalls, remember that? It also seems a little disingenuous when half of the "SIDS" deaths had nothing to do with co-sleeping to point the finger at co-sleeping as the issue.
I was glad that I was able to lend a voice for co-sleeping, even if the BC Coroner thinks I'm irresponsible. In the end, as parents, WE are the ones who have to make the parenting decisions. That's what I wanted to emphasize.
Has anyone shown the BC coroner this? http://www.healthychild.com/toxic-sleep/has-the-cause-of-crib-death-sids-been-found/
Well said Lorien. I actually recently had to explain to a (very smart and very well educated) friend that SIDS has nothing to do with co-sleeping. They still think my head is in the clouds about it. Oh well.
Well said!
I also found the CBC report v one sided, unbalanced and erroneous. Yes, they have put co-sleeping back a number of years, again.
Instead of correctly reporting advice to prepare safely for co-sleeping, they've now put off thousands of parents from even considering sleep safety.
I'm from India and I had not heard about SIDS until I came to US. Co-sleeping is considered unsafe in western contries.My son and I had so many sleepless nights becuase I followed "expert advise". But in the 2nd year, I was confident enough as mother and decided to cosleep and my son has been sleeping through the night since then. Now I look back and feel I was cruel to him by putting him in a big crib with just the matress and him in a overall and no blanket.
I just remarked to my friend, about the 'co-sleeping is only considered unsafe in western countries' comment that "right - in other countries it's just called...sleeping". I'm surprised news outlets can even find people who agree to be filmed for these kinds of stories any more - the number of stories of people who are misled about the tenor of a piece and then see their words edited and misused seems to be climbing.
Agree. Agree. Agree!!!
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