$1.2m study into safety of flax baskets for babies

Two Dunedin researchers will provide the sleep analysis expertise for a $1.2 million study focused on determining the safety of wahakura (woven flax baskets) for babies to sleep in.

University of Otago child health head Prof Barry Taylor and Otago Polytechnic associate head of midwifery Dr Sally Baddock have teamed with Dr David Tipene-Leach, of Hastings, and Angeline Tangiora, of the University of Auckland, for the Health Research Council of New Zealand-funded project.

Prof Taylor said up to 60 babies died from sudden infant death syndrome each year, 60% of them from Maori families.

The deaths were often associated with babies sleeping in the same bed as their parents, common among Maori to promote bonding and enable easy breast-feeding.

"So, the solution to preventing these deaths has to emerge, to a large degree, from the Maori community," Prof Taylor said.

The project will work in partnership with Maori in Hawkes Bay to evaluate the wahakura as a potentially safe place for babies to sleep.

Through midwifery services, 240 mothers will be recruited and randomly allocated either a wahakura, or a portable cot.

The sleep patterns of the babies will be monitored over their first six months.

Safety and the effects of the basket on rates of breast-feeding, infant sleep duration, and bonding between mother and baby will be investigated.

Prof Taylor and Dr Baddock will carry out the technical analysis of the sleep studies in Dunedin.

"We will use modern technology to work closely together as a single team but in two sites," he said.

Weaving teacher Roka Ngarimu-Cameron said using wahakura was not as common in Dunedin as it was further north in New Zealand.

She believed they had come back into fashion and she had taught a group of young mothers how to weave them.

It was good to go back to natural and traditional methods which were good for the health of both mother and child, she said.