Wanganui mums reject coroner's advice on babies

Some Wanganui mums say they still sleep safely with their children despite a coroner's warning that it can be a deadly practice.
And according to chiropractors, there's another risk factor that needs to be considered.
Wellington coroner Garry Evans last week warned that bed sharing was dangerous after four babies died after they shared a bed with others.
But local mothers and grandmothers say they are continuing the practice.
The Chronicle spoke with a mother who said she took her son to a chiropractor when he was seven days old on the day they left the maternity home.
She said she also slept with her child for a couple of years during breastfeeding.
"If you're both healthy then I don't see any problem with it. But I also had confidence with what I knew about subluxation."
Sublaxation, say chiropractors, should be checked for in every newborn. The New Zealand College of Education dean of Clinical Education, Dr Marina Fox, said a subluxation was a chiropractic term that described when a bone in the spine was misaligned and interfered with the nervous system.
"In the case of Sudden Infant Death syndrome (SIDS), a subluxation depresses the normal respiratory response and contributes to other risk factors crowded sleeping, smokers in the house, and old dusty damp bedding."
"Even a normal birth can lead to misalignment of the upper cervical vertebrae, let alone a traumatic one."
Checking for subluxation in newborns could help to improve their nervous system function as soon as possible after birth.
Whakaaronui ki te Ora Maori Women's Welfare League president and great-grandmother Tiahuia Abraham, said she knew a number of parents who slept with their children.
Especially if they were breastfeeding, Mrs Abraham said, then it was easier to feed the baby, and both went back to sleep without the disturbance of getting out of bed.
Mrs Abraham said any influences that might have affected the babies who died in Wellington were unknown.
"Mixing drugs and alcohol when sleeping with infants is an unacceptable practice."
Furthermore, breach births, home births and forceps deliveries, though fewer were carried out in preference for cesareans, could all have a bearing on infant deaths, Mrs Abraham said.
"We don't know the circumstances around the child's birth, or the mother's health during her pregnancy."
A Wanganui couple said long-term research in England had shown that as long as the parent was not drunk, on medication, smoked tobacco or overly tired, then sleeping with your children was an acceptable practice.
"Sleeping with your children is very healthy and strengthens the bond between the mother and baby. You have a heightened sense of being close." "Breastfeeding is also easier and you don't have to get up in the night to heat a bottle."
The international breastfeeding support organisation, La Leche League, has spoken out in favour of safe bed sharing for breastfeeding mothers and babies.
Director of La Leche League New Zealand, Barbara Sturmfels, said the risk to bed sharing with infants had only been shown to be the case when there were compounding issues, such as smoking, alcohol, drugs, obesity or excessive tiredness or when guidelines for safe bedding were not adhered to.
"When none of these factors are present, there seems to be no clear evidence that bed sharing is a risk to a baby's life and in fact in some situations it may be a protective factor for the baby."