As a mother who has supported many other mothers who are nursing, the last thing we need is to be told to use pacifiers with our infants (“Doctors revise advice on SIDS,” News, Oct. 10). Introducing pacifiers too soon can cause nipple confusion and can hamper the mother’s establishment of a good milk supply.
Furthermore sleeping with one’s baby can also build the mother’s milk supply and allow the mother to get some sleep, since she barely has to wake up to nurse her baby in the night.
In countries where babies sleep with their mothers, SIDS levels tend to be much lower than in countries where they don’t.
Babies tend to sleep less deeply when they are next to their mothers and mothers tend to enter into their babies’ sleep cycles and therefore are able to notice more quickly if a problem arises.
Nursing and co-sleeping have been happening since the dawn of humankind, and for the modern medical establishment to hinder what is so natural to so many of us is inexcusable.
