The Birth Hub

In the true spirit of this site, we'd like to make sure our readers have access to the facts about bed-sharing - especially in the light of the press coverage in recent days about the SWISS study.

A couple of facts: A cot death means a death in a cot - not in the parental bed. The correct term is SIDS - Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. It basically means an unexplained infant death.

A death on a sofa is not a SIDS necessarily - sofa deaths are usually from crushing/overlaying or baby getting wedged where it can't breathe.

Marking ten years since the arrival of the doula in the British childbirth arena, Gentle Birth Companions tells the story of the UK doula movement for the first time. A comprehensive account of the doula’s origins, attributes and credentials is supported by historical and socio-political comment on the growing UK doula community and its influence on the worldwide doula network. The author explains reasons why expectant women and birthing families need doulas, at the same time presenting informed discussion on the implications of the doula role for future midwifery practice.

Anyone who has looked into the subject may well already know it but this article on the Cancer Research Uk site about breastfeeding reducing the risk of breast cancer seemed particularly straightforward and authoritative; a nice little snippet to add to the information armoury. I stumbled across it in a sea of web pages when I typed in "breastfeeding" to Google.

I’ve just signed this petition calling for support to women to breastfeed their babies, you might want to do the same. Already thousands of babies have fallen seriously ill and some have died because they were fed milk that was contaminated. Their mothers lacked support to breastfeed. The campaign is backed by IBFAN and Baby Milk Action in the UK. Please consider signing- we need 1m signatures. Maddie x