If you were to lose an infant by sleeping with them in your bed, would you make that mistake again? A Texas mother faces up to 20 years in prison after a second son died of suffocation!
Vanessa Clark of Lufkin, Texas, has been found guilty of child endangerment, and was charged with the death of her two-month-old son Tristan Clark after prosecutors learned her first son, one-month-old Christian Clark, died in a similar way in 2009. She should have learned the first time around that sleeping with infants is dangerous!
The 33-year-old mother believed the first death was caused by Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, while the babies sleep with her and husband, Mark Clark. As many as 7,000 babies a year die from SIDS in the US, the single largest killer of newborns. Infants can easily be suffocated by their parents or by bedding and and pillows.
Vanessa has been warned by Child Protection Services about the dangers of sleeping with infants, but since she ignored those orders, the court reached the legal threshold of child endangerment in Texas law. ”It may not be illegal to sleep with your child, but it is illegal to put your child in imminent danger,” said prosecutor Dale Summa.
Her sentencing will be announced within the next six weeks.
So tragic!
– Giovanna Pagliarulo
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Lisa
Posted at 4:42 AM on November 26, 2012
I feel so sorry for this poor woman. Instead of trying to find out the real cause from these babies dying in SIDS they charge her for 20 years in prison. What if they had some kind of genetic defect or some kind of condition? It is natural to sleep with your babies and shouldn’t be a problem unless you are on strong medicins, alcohol or smoke. It is more unnatural for a new born to sleep in a cot and that is why it was originally called (Coth Death becuase it happens mostly with babies sleeping in cots). I tried to get my son to sleep in a cot when he was new born because that is what the English midwifes told me to do. Thankfully he is a very healthy and strong minded baby who knew this was unhealthy and he would be screaming until I hold him, nursed him and then he fell asleep. To blame these babies Cot deads on co-sleeping is not fair. But in America people get charged for breast feeding I heard so it is quite a hardcore and un loving Country when it comes to raising children. I hope there are organisations standing up for these poor woman and try to educate the judge better.