Before our daughter was born, the childbirth school we were attending told us that it's important that the newborn be rotated between positions (laying on left side/right side/back/belly) every couple hours. I thought, there's no way in hell we'll be awake enough to keep track of this, and not mess up the sequence. So I bought a wall clock to serve as an indicator, one that had no back (I wanted to put a color-coded, labeled card in the back) and was split into quadrants. Like this one: [0], except round. With that, it would mean we only need to check which quadrant the small hand is currently in to know which position our baby should be in.
And then we didn't use it much, because our daughter was unstable when on the side, learned quickly to flip between back and belly positions, and between all the other things that involved taking her out of her crib, it turned out this whole piece of advice about rotating baby position makes no sense in the first place.
So here's to a clear problem and a clever solution colliding with harsh reality. :).
This advice seems to cycle. With our first born we also had to alternate positions. Now with the second we got the strict instructions to let sleep on the back only. According to the help it was because every once in a while the number of babies that die in the crib surges and then everyone has to sleep on their back again. But they don’t really know what is going on.
I sure believe it has been the official one. It is just that whatever the maternity care people tell you do changes. And they’ll tell you it’s official.
What country are you in? That’s definitely not common in the US.
Running across a doctor telling you to do anything other than back only sleeping is like running across a doctor telling you that vaccines cause autism. I’m sure it happens, but it’s very rare.
I’m in the Netherlands. I also was not referring to doctors. We have help, kind of nurses, that comes help out for about a week after birth to get the family back on their feet and up and running again while they take care of the household (secondary) and the health of baby and mother (primary). Although they obviously get medical training, they are not doctors by far.
I think your original anecdote that the advice seems to cycle is likely very specific to your situation. My wife is a pediatrician and she's certain that in the US at least, the recommendations both official and actual haven't cycled for decades.
And then we didn't use it much, because our daughter was unstable when on the side, learned quickly to flip between back and belly positions, and between all the other things that involved taking her out of her crib, it turned out this whole piece of advice about rotating baby position makes no sense in the first place.
So here's to a clear problem and a clever solution colliding with harsh reality. :).
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[0] - https://br.pinterest.com/pin/836684437002318403/