Bed sharing or co-sleeping is certainly the most controversial topic of parenting. It is probably the scariest one in terms of consequences as well. The common advice cautions against sleeping near your baby, especially in the same bed.
There’s a lot to unpack here so let’s start by the fact that currently there is not enough evidence to support routine recommendations against sleeping with your baby.
Moreover, The Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine support bed sharing when it comes to breastfeeding. And in 2013, a study published in JAMA Pediatrics suggested that mothers who regularly bed share with their infants are more likely to breastfeed for longer. Numerous other studies have reached the same conclusion.
A 2011 study published in the Journal Pediatrics, found that bed-sharing at age 1-3 years poses no negative long-term effects for a child’s behavior and cognition at the age of 5 years.
And the good news is, there are ways to make sleeping with your baby safer.
THE SAFE SLEEP SEVEN
To keep your baby safe, NEVER sleep with your baby if you, your partner, or anyone who sleeps with your baby:
- Have had an alcoholic beverage,
- Have taken medicine that makes you sleepy (such as medicines for pain, colds or allergies, or a cough),
- Smoke or allow others to smoke around your baby (Second-hand smoke increases your baby’s risk of SIDS),
- Are overly tired or heavy sleepers,
- Have had any illegal drugs, or
- Have other children or pets in your bed.
NEVER sleep with your baby on a couch or sofa. Your baby can roll out of your arms, become trapped and suffocate.
NEVER sleep with your baby on a sagging or soft mattress, waterbed, or on a mattress pushed against the wall or a piece of furniture. Your baby could become trapped here too and suffocate (Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine, 2008; UNICEF, 2005).
And one final word of advice, prepare ahead. Studies show, even though most new breastfeeding mothers today don’t plan to share a bed, studies show that eventually 60 – 70% of them will, at least some of the time. Isafe n fact, it may in fact be the most common secret parents keep literally under covers.
