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Excerpts from: Smoking, Breast-Feeding Connected to SIDS

AP (washingtonpost.com) [04/2401]
 

New mothers who don't breast-feed and those who smoke after giving birth place their babies at strong risk for sudden infant
death syndrome, government researchers said yesterday.

Placing babies on their backs for sleep has long been the focus of the campaign to prevent SIDS, which kills about 3,000 infants
each year.

But a study presented at a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conference in Atlanta suggests that breast-feeding and
protecting babies from secondhand smoke may be just as important.

The study of 117 SIDS cases in Louisiana in 1997 and 1998 found 55 percent of the deaths could have been prevented had the
mothers breast-fed their children. Studies have shown breast-feeding can help prevent respiratory problems sometimes related
to SIDS.

The study also said 27 percent of the deaths could have been prevented if mothers had not smoked after delivery, exposing
their children to secondhand smoke.

-- Compiled from reports by the Associated Press