It seems that so often, poorly done news sources stick very provocative, suggestive statements into their articles to make a case about a buzzword. It seems that they are paid by a political party or otherwise have extremely unusual motivations for leaving behind professional writing and editing ability. Here's a good one about something called sleeping with your child:
"Whether the Lakeville case prompts charges, nearly every such infant death -- the clinical term is "co-sleeping" -- could have been prevented, said Linda Thompson, a pediatrician at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis."
Let's read
that statement's text closely, as it is written...The clinical term for infant death is "co-sleeping" and nearly every such co-sleeping death could have been prevented, as advised by an authority figure that everyone should trust. Co-sleeping, therefore, is something that is should be prevented.
Kidding, right? Who wrote and edited this story? Does the writer David Chanen take the quote seriously? If that quote was accurate, maybe Linda Thompson should clarify what she meant.
No wonder my parents' anxiety went through the living room ceiling when we said, "oh yeah, we love sleeping with our little girl." Which I do. I've been sleeping and connecting with my little girl every night for three months now. I love hearing and feeling her breathing, hearing her noisiest dreams, feeling her small swaddled body next to my head, knowing that she eats right when she needs to because we hear her, and our small family is together.
Here's what I and her mother don't do prior to hopping into bed with our infant, which the article just may be missing when it comes to describing co-sleeping as infant death: hit the bong, binge drink, tap a vein, or pop a couple downer cocktails. Oh yes, we are not elderly or obese either, which much of the american population is. Maybe that incredible Star Tribune should mention something balanced and informed about the statistics of people that co-sleep successfully and the awful and unusual stories that they report on. But I guess producing accurate statistics and thoughtful insight is costly, and news sources like this one need drama to produce readers and traffic in the age of collapsing media outlets.
Cheers to co-sleeping for healthy, sober parents and their babies. It's unfortunate that some parents cannot. And for those who think that the baby should be left to sleep in a room by itself, best wishes for the later results of that decision.
