Drunk Mom Smothered Baby While Breastfeeding

<snip>

An Oshkosh infant's February death occurred because her drunken mother fell asleep on top of her while breastfeeding, Winnebago County prosecutors alleged Friday.

Lorinda J. Hawkins, 27, formerly of Oshkosh, was charged in Winnebago County Circuit Court on one count of child neglect causing the Feb. 23 death of her 4-month-old girl. She faces a 29-year prison sentence and $100,000 in fines if convicted of the crime as a repeat felony offender.

Winnebago County District Attorney William Lennon said the case was egregious for reasons beyond what's alleged.

"This allegation of homicide occurred while she was on probation for neglect of this very victim," he said.

The criminal complaint states that Hawkins' husband drove her and their 4-year-old daughter to an Oshkosh bowling alley, where Hawkins drank six double-shot alcoholic beverages. He later picked them up, brought them home and then left to have some drinks.

Their baby was unresponsive when he returned home at 2 a.m.

Hawkins told police that she began breastfeeding the child at about midnight, and fell asleep about 15 minutes later because of her intoxication.

She woke up about an hour later, noticed the baby was pale and not breathing. She tried CPR. She and her husband attempted CPR for "an extended period of time" before calling 911, the complaint states.

http://www.thenorthwestern.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051112/OSH0101/511120312/1127/OSH01

She really shouldn't have been breast feeding anyway since she had been drinking.

The percentage of alcohol in breast milk is the same for blood, so a couple of drinks wouldn't make much difference, but 12 servings of alcohol? Wow.

yeah she had too much. Obviously!! I am sure she feels horrible, but damn, it is just sad.

when I saw the title of the thread, I expected a Texas dateline, since that seems to be homicidal-mommy central.

No matter. It's sick wherever it happened.

Next question: if the allegations prove true, how much rein do we give to our collective societal punishment fetish?

There are some Texans here that might not appreciate that!! Just sayin'!
:) :hi:

but I'm still traumatized by "Dateline Texas: Mother drowns children in bathtub" and "Dateline Texas: Mother bashes childrens' brains in with really big rock."

Aaarrrrgggghhhh!

:wtf: :shrug:

let alone being trashed. That is so sad :(

Worst unintentional pun ever, but doesn't booze get secreted in booby milk too? She should have whipped out the ol' bottle for the baby instead. (eh, the formula bottle... not the bottle for grown-ups...)

while on "probation" for neglecting her already?

when people slept with their babies in the same bed as the adults. Particularly when the parent(s) was/were intoxicated.

but . . .

It isn't safe to sleep with a baby if someone is drunk, a really heavy sleeper, or has taken any medication which changes sleep patterns (ie some allergy medicine, sleeping pills, etc.)

Or, I guess, if the mom smokes. I'm not sure if that changes her sleep patterns or what but I've read that it isn't just a case of not sleeping with the baby, that if the mom smokes she could roll over on the baby.

just don't do it if you're drunk or drugged (legal or illegal).

/after posting, I was afraid someone would misread me to be saying it's always bad to sleep with your baby!

Even strong co-sleeping advocates warn NOT to do so if your body is under the influence of alcohol and/or certain types of drugs.

A lot of parents choose to sleep with their newborn. Anytime the mother puts the baby to breast and then goes to sleep there is a risk of the baby being smothered. The larger the woman's breasts, the greater the risk.

It doesn't require that alcohol or other drugs be involved either. Some women intentionally make the decision to put the child to breast and go back to sleep (I just talked to one 2 days ago). They know it's a risk but they'd rather get the extra sleep.
Some women are just exhausted and can't stay awake. They don't mean to fall asleep but the exhaustion catches up to them. This scenario is very common in the first 3 months as babies that are breast fed only often require a feeding every 1.5 hours. Try living like that for 3 months - get up for a minimum of 45 minutes every 1.5 hours for 3 months.

but I don't believe my daughter was ever in danger by a long shot. I'm a light sleeper. But I slept while my daughter was nursing and she was fine. Babies all around the world for centuries have breastfed in bed with their mothers.

I've heard that it is less safe for obese women, so in that case larger breasts could be a bigger hazzard I guess.

Virtually every case of a child being smothered in bed was due to alcohol or drugs. And babies die in cribs too, and are smothered in cribs by crib bumpers or by sheets or whatever.

I slept much more lightly when my kids were in bed with me. I often dosed while nursing; if I hadn't, I might not have slept at all.

The kids are almost 6 and 4 now, sleeping happily in their own beds.

... on the drugs point. I have family that work at the hospital and many times they come home in tears because another exhausted Mom fell asleep while breastfeeding and killed the baby. In about 80% of the cases that happen at the hospital the death had nothing to do with alcohol or drugs - just simple exhaustion.

I will agree that anything that makes a person sleep deeper than normal is going to raise the risk of smothering.

I know in my case I'm typically a light sleeper (if a semi truck drives by I'm awake), but the night after giving birth to my son the hospital staff couldn't wake me. I had been up for 48 hours when I finally fell asleep, the only thing I'd taken was a multi-vitamin, but the nurses said they tried multiple times to wake me and it wasn't happening - even when they shook me and splashed my face with cold water.
I'm very grateful that I didn't have my son to breast that night.

This could ONLY happen in America.

:shrug: It could happen anywhere. The world is full of idiots.

That's just what I post in MatcomNews threads whenever I can't think of anything else to say. :)

:hi:

I nursed my second daughter in bed quite often when she was new.....

She always wanted to eat at least twice per night, and I was exhausted.

Obviously it worked out OK for us, but I didn't drink alcohol then.

This is just a tragic situation all around, for all concerned...