Mother in pre-20th century society finds baby dead in the morning. Mother knows nothing about SIDS, heart problems, overwhelming infection, or any of the other things that killed little babies suddenly and silently - and inexplicably - before medicine got itself organized.
"Well, I must have rolled over on the baby while I slept."
Then of course you have to exclude those Hogarthian moms who were stoned on gin (and even in those days 'overlaying' was found far more commonly in the London slums) and evil people who abused children and then claimed they "found the baby dead."
Since cribs and bassinets are relatively recent innovations, and even now are found only among the more affluent in Western nations, if 'overlaying' were a serious problem you would be seeing a lot more of it.
See #34
P.S. Note that disputing the historical record requires speculation (i.e. the mother didn’t know why the baby died, etc.) that is at best no more reputable than the historical report... and is most likely much less so. So if I have to assume anything, I’ll assume that most of the folks who reported overlaying actually did so... and not try convoluted rationalizations to reinterpret them...
I believe your explanation, a common sense thing which a lot of people just don’t get...is right on.
“I rolled on to the baby when I slept” is a catch all phrase that likely explains nothing.
It’s how I intuit all the brouhaha.
And intuitively, I simply do not believe that large amounts of babies from certain zip codes are dying because their mothers are rolling over on them.
Just a guess here but beat me up I’ll simply never believe this.
Wisdom, they say, is an abundance of common sense. Plenty on thread are expressing skepticism as well they should.
It makes no sense.