Baby: Manual Not Included

We are busy working on a new website, so apologies for the lack of new articles recently.
I am busy putting together the “extended” breastfeeding article while my lovely husband creates a beautiful new site where the articles will be stored separately from a new “blog” area.

But I couldn’t let this one pass:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/10465473.stm

The study was reported as finding that:
“Women who plan home births recover more rapidly from childbirth, but there is a higher risk of their child dying”

As a woman who planned a homebirth (although X had other ideas) I researched this issue relentlessly. There is an article in the pipeline on this one…

But for now, I leave you with the NHS Choices analysis of the study that is being reported upon:

The findings are complex, and cannot simply be summed up as showing that hospital births are safer than home births. It is important to highlight that although it appears to show a greater risk of newborn deaths with home births, the absolute risk in either location is still very low (0.2% for planned home births and 0.09% for planned hospital births).
The researchers say that some of the higher mortality rate may be attributable to fewer instrumental or interventional deliveries with home deliveries. This theory cannot be proven or disproved by this research, but would need to be established by further study. Notably, although home births appeared favourable for certain maternal outcomes, the study was unable to shed any light on the risk of maternal death for either location.

And crucially:
It is also important to highlight that when the analysis only looked at homebirths that had been attended by a certified midwife, there was no difference in risk of neonatal mortality compared to hospital births.

So, for now I leave you, once again, with the sad fact that journalists often do not appear to actually read the papers they are reporting on.

My first blog! I decided to write a little about co-sleeping, the research for and against, and our own choices. What started out as a little blog quickly turned into a 4000 word thesis. So, I’ve put a few extracts here and a link to the larger article, which gives much more information. I think this may be the way it is for many topics on here!

3 in the bed and the little one said…..

Co-sleeping and bed sharing: This was one of the first “controversial” areas we ventured into. There is a lot of misinformation about co-sleeping in books, on the net, and from professionals. It is very very difficult to make an evidence-based decision about bed sharing – if it is what you think you may want to do.

When pregnant I was adamant that I would never put X in bed with us. What if I rolled onto him? Don’t all the guidelines say never sleep with your baby? But I developed Bursitis in my shoulder from lifting X in and out of his Moses basket to feed him. I was knackered from trying to feed sitting up as I worried about falling asleep if I fed lying on my side. I even had raw elbows from propping myself up in bed on my elbow to check on him in the night… is he still breathing??

So, we had to make a call – do we put the baby in bed with us or not?

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