Commentary: Safety issues with skin-to-skin care must be acknowledged

Joel L. Bass, M.D., FAAP and Tina Gartley, M.D., FAAP

The AAP report also sheds light on the serious issue of newborn falls in the hospital related to maternal sleeping during bed-sharing. The common link between SUPC events and newborn hospital falls is their association with mother-baby co-sleeping in the prone position.

The potential relationship of SUPC to compliance with breastfeeding practices related to the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) recently was discussed in a review of hospital deaths of newborns while bed-sharing using data from the National Association of Medical Examiners (Thach BT. J Perinatol. 2013;34:275-279). A 2013 article in AAP News expressed similar concerns and suggested a need to integrate safe sleep policies with SSC (http://www.aappublications.org/content/34/11/22).

Read more at AAP News.