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Is the Family Bed Dangerous?

© Jeri Carr

Every night familes all over the world sleep together, and every day, many mothers nurse and nap with their babies. Sometimes families co-sleep out of necessity--they don't have enough beds for everyone or they have a baby who cries when put down to sleep alone--or perhaps it's their cultural norm, they love to sleep nestled next to their baby, or they are convinced of the many benefits which include enhanced bonding between mother and baby, a good milk supply for moms who nurse while sleeping, and a reduction in the risk of SIDS (see my article SIDS).

Can the common occurence of co-sleeping be dangerous? Advocates of the family bed assure parents that sleeping with their babies is safe, but it's not as common to hear mention made of the precautions to take to help make co-sleeping safer. When new mothers express concern over the possiblity of rolling over on their baby and suffocating them, we quickly assure the mothers that they don't need to be afraid of sleeping with their babies and that suffocation by over-lying is probably only an an old wives' tale. Have we been wrong?

On September 29, 1999, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission released a statement that warns against placing babies in adult beds. A CPSC study published in the October issue of the "Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine" found that placing babies to sleep in adult beds puts them at risk of suffocation or strangulation. CPSC Chairman Ann Brown warns, "Don't sleep with your baby or put the baby down to sleep in an adult bed."

Should all parents avoid sleeping with their babies? Should I stop sleeping with my baby? I don't believe that I should. We can, however, learn something from this report. Let's take a look at the report says and see what helpful things we can learn.

In the report we see that incident data from January 1990 to December 1997 linked adult beds to at least 515 baby deaths. We also see that far more deaths occurred as a result of entrapment rather than by co-sleeping. 394 deaths occured from entrapment including 128 deaths which occured from "wedging between mattress and wall" and 142 from "wedging between mattress and bed frame, headboard or footboard." 121 were co-sleeping deaths, that is, rolling on top of or against baby while sleeping.

So, instead of telling parents not to co-sleep, it makes sense for parents who choose to co-sleep to take certain precautions. And perhaps since the report states that "More than three-quarters of these deaths occurred to infants younger than 3 months," then surely it would be prudent to take extra caution when sleeping with young and newborn babies.

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