Many studies confirm that sleeping next to mother helps to regulate an infant’s breathing. Gaps in breathing are normal during the early months of infancy, and it is likely that the mother’s breathing reminds the infant to take a breath following exhalation, preventing a SIDS situation from developing. Even if this reminder system fails, the mother is nearby to arouse the infant. A breastfeeding mother and her baby have coordinated sleeping and dreaming cycles, making her keenly aware of her baby’s needs. If she is sleeping next to the infant, she will awaken if her baby is having difficulty. If the baby is alone, this life-saving intervention cannot take place. A large New Zealand study found that sharing a room with a non-smoking adult reduced the risk of SIDS by 81%. English researchers have also revealed that prolonged periods of lone quiet sleep are a factor in SIDS.
Sharing sleep also promotes successful breastfeeding. Researchers in England reported a tripled risk of SIDS for bottle-fed babies, as did a University of California study. A German study suggested nearly eight times the risk of SIDS for babies who are not breastfed. Co-sleeping takes full advantage of the ease of breastfeeding, as there is no need to go to another room to get the child. A breastfeeding mother in a "family bed" can easily feed her child without having to wake fully, and can continue to get the important rest she needs. Thus co-sleeping encourages mothers to extend breastfeeding and all of its benefits for a longer period of time.
Any nighttime danger to a child is reduced if there is an adult close by. Every year thousands of children perish in house fires, many occurring at night. It seems likely that most of these children died because they were isolated from their parents, where they could not be easily retrieved. Also, babies and children have been sexually abused by visitors, abducted from their beds, attacked by pets, suffocated after vomiting, and have died or been injured in various ways which could have been prevented had a parent been nearby to help.
Making blanket recommendations to remove infants from their parents’ bed will only lead to an increase in SIDS and night time accidental deaths in this country. When hundreds of babies were dying due to unsafe cribs the answer was not to remove babies from their cribs. Instead safety information was provided to parents and nursery furniture manufacturers. The same should be true for parental beds. Accurate education and safety equipment should be made available. Safe guardrails, headboards, or other modifications for parental beds need to be made available, and parents should be educated on the dangers of smoking, intoxication, and waterbeds as regards co-sleeping.
The Family Bed, An evolutionary approach to family sleep
by Katie Allison Granju
A Reply to the Consumer Product Safety Commission statement on Co-Sleeping
How to make sleep sharing work
Family Bed: An expert's opinion
