(Image Source: Milwaukee Health Department)
BY KIM ST. ONGE
A baby sleeping next to a butcher knife? Sounds ridiculous, right? That’s the approach the Milkwaukee Health Department is taking to warn parents about the dangers of co-sleeping.
WTVT gives us the details.
“The text above the photo reads your baby sleeping with you can be just as dangerous. Co-sleeping is when parents bring their baby into bed with them and it’s very controversial.”
The Health Department says the ad was prompted after a medical examiner’s office announced a 7-week-old baby, whose gender was not released, was found dead in Milwaukee after co-sleeping with the mother.
An anchor on WTXF argues the ad goes too far.
“I had my baby at a birth center. They would encourage co--sleeping and things, natural, and the normal threat to your child when you are co--sleeping with them, if you had too much to drink or if yourself early overweight, when you can really roll over and suffocate your child. So if you are not in those two categories where you are so incapacitated and passed out, a lot of people would say a natural thing, it is a good relationship, and you're bonding.”
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett sticks up for the Health Department-- telling ABC -- his city’s recent infant mortality rates speak for itself.
“Some ZIP codes in Milwaukee have infant mortality rates higher than Third World countries. That’s unacceptable … If the ads make some people uncomfortable, I guarantee it’s a lot less uncomfortable than having another baby die from co-sleeping,” a cause of death that is “so preventable.”
A mother of two and blogger for The Stir argues the provocative ad exaggerates the dangers of co-sleeping.
“...they made sure there were tons of poofy and loose blankets and pillows that look like they're going to swallow the baby (who is on his/her stomach, not back). There is no parent to be seen, either.”
The Milwaukee health department is recommending babies should sleep alone, on their backs, in their own crib or bassinet.
Transcript by Newsy.
