These archives contain extracts from discussions held on the UK Midwives and Consumers email list, a discussion group for people interested in midwifery in the UK. Open to midwives, students, mothers, and anyone interested in improving maternity services in UK. Posts in these archives express the views of the individual authors, and not those of the Association of Radical Midwives.
We have been giving it a lot of thought that we would like to buy a baby monitor that goes under the mattress and alerts you to lack of breathing etc. Has anyone used one of these or could give me pros and cons of them.
This is my 3rd child and last time I was very restless getting up to check on him all the time to see if he was ok and wore myself out.
Any you would recommend or not?
I'd recomend the baby sleeping in your room, then you'll all worry less and get more sleep.
We had Tomy but havent had them out of the packet.
Almasysk
This fear was the main reason we chose to co-sleep with all 4 of ours.
It was fantastic, nothing like waking up to ur little one tucked up snugly beside u :o)
Mandy xx
Just some anecdotal stuff! My youngest (now a strapping 4 year old) stopped breathing at age 6 weeks. Put him down for a daytime nap in his cot in his room and went to get in the bath. Stopped by his room to check on him and he was white, blue lips and not breathing. I screamed and then put my hands on him and he started breathing again. We went to hospital and they checked him over and we stayed in overnight. He developed a rash a short time later and a slight temp but no other symptoms and we went home the next day. He never did it again! We were offered an apneoa alarm and talked about it with the doctors but in the end we decided that it was highly likely to make me more anxious as when we were in the hospital, it kept going off all the time when he was absolutely fine. We learnt resusc techniques just in case but basically took him home and treated him like a normal baby. All I can say is that you have to make up your own mind, but don't assume that because you have an alarm that you will be worry free! Keeping the baby close to you and going with your instincts is all that is required.
Anna
Hello, I had one of these monitors for my two. I found personally, after the alarm sounded a couple of times in the night which is absolutely awful, and there wasn't actually anything wrong with my sons, it made me far more worried. The worst was trying to wean myself off from using it, because it was there I felt I had to use it IYSWIM, because if something happened and I didn't have it on ...... (my husband made the decision to take it away otherwise I think it would still be under their mattress when they are 18 yrs old!!!!) It was actually bought for us as a present, otherwise I don't think I would have used one. My children were healthy, in my room with me and often in my bed, and instead of boosting my confidence it had the opposite effect. But that's just my personal experience, it didn't actually lessen the getting up to check routine either.
Claire
We had one for my eldest (well we still have it although it hasn't been used on either of the other two) Prior to the birth I thought it would be really reasurring but because she was in with us for the first six months I didn't use it then (only used it if I was in the shower and she was in the moses basket- when she napped in the day it was downstairs so could check on her easily.) If you have tended to put your baby in his/her cot for naps it could save you running up and downstairs to check. The downsides I found were - when I went to pick her up I always forgot to turn it off first (and it gave just enough time for me to get from her cot back into my bed before the alarm going off) and it was only about a fortnight after her being in her own room that she started being mobile enough to move off the pad so would set the alarm off when she was fine as no longer lying in the right place, after several false alarms I turned it off
Claire
LW updated July 9, 2004