User Contributed Dictionary
Verb
overlaying- present participle of overlay
Extensive Definition
Overlaying is the act of smothering a child to
death by rolling over them in sleep.
Overlaying was perceived to be one common way of
conducting infanticide in Victorian
England. Many wet nurses were
accused of this, and in many counties the wet nurse would have to
provide a crib out of her own money to ensure that she would not
sleep with the child.
In researching smothering deaths by black
slaves in the American
South, which occurred nine times more frequently than in white
families, Michael P. Johnson suggests that
sudden infant death syndrome was in fact to blame (which, if it
happened in white families, would be heavily underreported because
of the social stigma attached).