Milwaukee Runs Provocative Ads to Wake Parents about the Dangers of Co-Sleeping

For several years, despite of its improvement, Milwaukee ranked among the ten most dangerous large cities in the United States. Crimes such as rape, robbery and homicide are always to be present in the said city because of the presence of ten thousand different gang members, may it be black, white, Asian and Latino.

Moreover, mortality rate of infant in Milwaukee in 2009 is so hasty; recording 10.4 deaths for every 1,000 live births and the second-leading cause of it, as according to and reported in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is the SIDS.

SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) or commonly known as cot death or crib death often results from ‘unsafe sleep’ or bed-sharing with parents, sleeping in a prone position.

The campaign “YOUR BABY SLEEPING NEXT TO YOU CAN BE JUST AS DANGEROUS,” as reported in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel includes two posters of a baby lying in a bed next to a large knife; one baby is white and the other is black.

“Is it shocking? Is it provocative?” asked Bevan Baker, the city’s commissioner of health, according to the Journal Sentinel.

“Yes. But what is even more shocking and provocative is that 30 developed and underdeveloped countries have better infant death rates than Milwaukee,” JS commented.

Different feedback were then came out; some supporting the ad and others do not.

In the parenting website Babble, a post on the ‘Baby’s First Year’ blog written by Danielle625 entitled “Shame on Milwaukee Co-Sleeping Ads” ridiculed the campaign saying that “these ads are in complete bad taste. They are uninformed, biased, and of course simply for the shock value in it all. Instead of helping to educate parents they are trying to guilt them out of certain options for co-sleeping, and sleeping in general, when they can be extremely safe!”

She herself is a co-sleeper with her three children, and said that co-sleeping when done safely was harmless and even beneficial-citing a prominent parenting website ‘Ask Dr.Sears.‘

One of the commentator in the blog named Megan says “as a milwaukee resident and cosleeper, I am hardly phased by these ads. Milwaukee has an extremely high infant mortality rate and an alarming African American infant mortality rate. unsafe sleeping conditions has been cited as a contributing factor to that rate. the reasons for these shocking ads are complex and unfortunate, however their aim is to stress safe sleeping. cosleeping can be unsafe and that is a fact. going to bed intoxicated while cosleeping can be lethal. not keeping extra pillows and blankets free from your baby’s body is dangerous. just like almost anything dealing with infant care, informed decisions must be made. the choice to cosleep should not be a haphazard decision or an afterthought. but the condition Milwaukee is in is depressing and these ads are no exception.”

Raquel Filmanowicz, communications officer for the Milwaukee Health Department, said the city ran similarly provocative ads a year and a half ago, and received an overwhelmingly positive response. All ads follow up on the initial shock they may cause by offering a phone number for parents to call to receive a free Pack ‘N Play, a collapsible crib, she said.

Tom Barett, the Mayor of the City told the ABC News, “some ZIP codes in Milwaukee have infant mortality rates higher than Third World countries. That’s unacceptable and 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.”

JS said that the city has set a goal of reducing the infant mortality rate for blacks by 15 percent, and the overall rate by 10 percent by 2017.

Let’s not argue with this! Different kinds of ads or campaigns has its own different objectives!

Well, I am not against co-sleeping, not because I’m not yet a mother who co-slept, but because this issue is not just about how safe and dangerous co-sleeping is, this is about how we can prevent babies’ death in an unintentional and unacceptable way!